This decade has started out with news that’s really difficult for people all around the world.
And yet, the world keeps turning. The sun keeps rising and setting, and clocks keep ticking, or doing whatever the equivalent of ticking is in the digital world.
I’ve been watching this DST issue for more than five years now, and I can tell you that this year I’m seeing a level of press interest, proposed legislation, and viewership to this blog that’s off the charts. I always see a big bump right around the DST clock changes, but in 2020 I’m seeing that kind of interest in January.
That’s great!
I have yet to write about my appearance late last year at a conference put on by the National Conference of State Legislators.
The panel discussion itself wasn’t remarkable to close readers of this blog. Calvin Schermerhorn, a historian, and Ray Ward, a state legislator from Utah, and I talked about the convoluted path that got us here, and the now certainty that this historical oddity will soon go the way of, say, a ban on women voting.
Perhaps what was most remarkable was the fact that we were on the agenda. This was a substantial, policy-based group gathering to discuss issues related to health care, transportation, economic development, etc. And the issue of Daylight Saving Time fit in perfectly. Even a couple of years ago there’s no way a body like the National Conference of State Legislators would hold a session on this topic.
And the conversation wasn’t hypothetical, and it wasn’t the kind of conversation I had all the time in the last decade where people wondered if this was an issue at all. Not one person said, “Why are we even talking about this when there’s so many more important things to talk about?” I used to get that all the time.
No, the conversation was tactical.
- Should our state run a bill that coordinates with neighboring states?
- What should we put in our bill that will make it work with the federal bills now being considered?
- What is the best timing?
There are no perfect answers to any of those questions by the way. My answer in nearly all cases is that legislators could probably learn best from the bills that have passed already, like these:
- Florida, which was in some ways first to pass a bill in 2018.
- Delaware
- Maine
- Oregon
- Tennessee
- Washington
- and Utah with a resolution.
In California, of course, there’s a bill that should pass this year after a statewide resolution passed by a huge margin.
And in Massachusetts, the state passed a bill to come up with a study committee, and that committee recommended strongly that the state #LockTheClock.
More than 40 states heard bills last year, and six passed something. How many will pass a bill this year? My guess is double last year, plus one. That will be 13.
So that means we’ll go from 1 in 2018 to 6 in 2019 to 13 in 2020 for a goal of 20 by 2020!
(How’s that for a catchy goal?)
Stay tuned to this site, and be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you get all the news on our march toward 20 by 2020.
The newsletter comes at most once a month (and it hasn’t even been that of late) so don’t worry, it won’t jam up your inbox.
Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year!