LockTheClock

Fix Daylight Saving Time for good!

Resolution to End Daylight Saving Time Clock-Changing

Hey, Nate Glubish, You Can Fix The Clock for the Whole World

Nate Glubish Aug 2019

Dear Nate,

I hope you don’t mind me calling you that. I know you are a duly elected member of Alberta Legislative Assembly, but you are also Canadian, so my guess is that you are not overly formal.

Recently the news came out that you are going to call for a referendum to ask voters what they think about Daylight Saving Time. You have good reason for wanting to do this:

“Albertans are passionate about this and a change on this matter should not be taken lightly. How Albertans calculate time affects literally everyone in this province, as well as others beyond our borders.”

Indeed, you are right that people are passionate about this issue, even in the under-stated country of Canada.

You are also right that how Albertans deal with time could affect others outside of Alberta. Or, you could be.

You went on to say that the wording of the question has not yet been decided. The wording is so important, and that’s why I am writing to you today in this public format.

You see, there has been a lot of polling done, and there have even been a handful of votes. In every poll and in every vote, it’s clear that the people would like to see something done to fix the madness of changing the clocks twice per year.

The question is: What should be done?

This is where I would respectfully submit to you the question you can ask that will help make some actual progress in Alberta, and as you alluded to, in the other provinces and I would say there may even be a lesson that those of us in the U.S. may listen to.

So, what should the question be? How about this:

If Alberta moves to stay in one time zone all year round, what time zone should it be? Permanent Standard Time (what we have in the winter) or Permanent Daylight Saving Time (what we have in the summer)?

With wording like that you will take away the ambiguity that has existed in so many other referenda and polls. I suppose you could make it two questions: 1. Should we keep changing the clock twice a year? and 2. If not, which time zone should we lock into?

Can you ask two questions? Maybe you just want to keep it to one. If so, then asking which time zone Alberta should lock into is the one that will get you the useful information you need, and will be instructive for politicians in all of the countries that still practice the barbarism of changing the clock twice per year.

If you do ask that question, my hunch is that it will come in at about 80-20 for permanent Daylight Time. In Alberta, a lot of people are already going to work/school in the dark during the winter, so if it is an hour of it still being dark in the morning, meh.

With Permanent DST, at least people will have a bit of sunshine when they get off of work, and the kids will have a little bit of time in the daylight after school to play outside.

I’ve been wrong before, and perhaps people will vote for permanent Standard Time. There will still be plenty of evening light in the summer, and the mornings won’t be quite as bleak in the winters.

There’s plenty of science on both sides of the issue, so asking voters what they think is a great idea, and a way to actually make some progress in Alberta, and around the world.

Happy to talk to you directly if I can be of service,

Your fellow citizen of the Mountain Time Zone down in the States,

I remain,

Yours,

-Scott

 

Ohio and Daylight Saving Time—Will They Pass The Buckeye?

Close readers of this blog my note that I have not written in a while. Sorry about that. Just busy with my day job and personal life.

I’m being prompted back to life by the helpful staff of some legislators in Ohio. As is my custom, when I can’t testify in person and instead am required to submit written testimony, I just write it up and put it here on my blog.

I also try not to just repeat the same thing in every state. I’ve seen that done, and people can really tell.

OK, here goes:

<clears throat>

DST in OhioPhoto by Benjamin Suter on Unsplash

 

Dear members of the State and Local Government Committee,

Many of you were in the legislature just two years ago when Ohio passed a resolution that was essentially similar to this. And you may be asking why we are back doing this again?

Fair question. Let me answer with an analogy:

When you were a kid, did you ever ask a parent for, say, some ice cream? And they said no, but when you asked a second time they said yes?

Same kind of thing here. Congress has the power to give America some ice cream in the form of no longer needing to change the clock twice per year. They didn’t give it to us in the last session, so now we are back, and we want that ice cream.

Of course, this is ice cream that comes with a benefit of saving lives. You may remember all the stats from last time, and the research done since then makes it even more clear: The “Spring Forward” time change is deadly. Heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, the whole list. The research that has come out in the last two years is that deaths and hospitalizations for just about every cause go up as a direct result of the government stealing an hour of sleep from the whole population one weekend in March.

So, yes, this is a good thing to do. Saves lives. Makes people happy. And everyone wants it. A recent national poll shows 68 percent approval for passing a bill to #LockTheClock. Only 14 percent opposed.

And now, if I might… a quick personal appeal:

That poll showed wide approval for this change to the law, and the numbers were almost identical among people of both parties.

Also, this issue is blessedly bi-partisan. Washington and Delaware have passed bills, as have Wyoming and Arkansas. Sponsors of the current federal bill include Marco Rubio of Florida and Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

In most states, the bills that I see do well have broad bipartisan support.

This resolution, however, looks like it has only Republican cosponsors.

Really?

I want this resolution to pass, sure, but what I want even more is for our country to heal. To do that, we need to find some common ground and work from there.

This issue is that common ground. There is simply no spin that can turn this into a conservative or liberal issue. Even Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren said they want to #LockTheClock.

So I’m directly challenging every single one of the co-sponsors to go out and recruit one Democratic co-sponsor. If you can’t work together on this, what can you work together on?

Federal Bills to Stop Daylight Saving Time – Update for 2021

I recently wrote about what’s going on in state legislatures around the country. One of the criticisms that I sometimes get is that I shouldn’t pay much attention to what happens in the states because the federal law needs to get fixed, and state-level efforts are pointless.

That’s just wrong, but you’ll have to read that post to figure out why. Short version… in a movement like this… all progress is progress.

Still, a federal law would fix things, so I am all in favor of federal legislation, and with the announcement yesterday about the new version of the Sunshine Protection Act, (and the upcoming—deadly—change to the clocks), attention has turned again to D.C. So, let’s look at what is happening.

First, here are the active bills in a handy table updated continuously from the remarkably helpful people at BillTrack50.

2021 Federal DST Bills

 

As of this writing, there are three bills, two of them with identical language. I’ve been in touch with the staff of the sponsors of all three bills. I’m always careful to respect confidential information, and also be mindful of the legislative process, so everything I say here will not be a surprise to them.

I’ve told all of them essentially the same thing:

  1. I support you.
  2. I will do whatever I can to help.
  3. I hope that as these measures move forward we can adjust them a bit.

I was hoping that this year one of them would introduce a bill set up the way I think will work best, but because I do all of this as a hobby in my spare time, and because I am not the most organized person in the world, I didn’t get that message to the right people at the right time, so here we are.

Will Daylight Saving Time be Eliminated?

Where we are, however, is in a great position. When Sen. Rubio introduced his act the first time back in 2018, his effort sunk like a pebble tossed into a pond that didn’t leave a ripple. When he introduced it again in 2019 the proposal got two things that it didn’t get the first time: Lots of bipartisan cosponsors AND competing legislation in the House. Both are signs of momentum, and that’s what it takes, I’m told, to get things done in D.C.

Really, if it hadn’t been for, well, 2020 (and all that implies) this may have happened last year.

So this is the year, I think. A reporter recently asked me what the odds were that it would happen this year, and I didn’t have a good answer at the tip of my tongue. Now with a moment to think about it I think it’s 50-50 this year, and at least 75-25 next year.

What are the steps to have that happen?

At this point, really only one step, which is for one of these bills to get a hearing.

There is a chance that the concept of #LockTheClock could get woven into some other bill. That’s what happened the last time there was a change to DST. Some of you may remember that in the U.S. we formerly changed the clocks for the spring in April, and now it’s in March. That change, and one to push it just one week later (from last Sunday of October to the first Sunday of November, a change lobbied for by the candy industry) was shoehorned into the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and took effect in 2007. 

The same thing could happen now. Let’s say the Support Local Transportation Act gains momentum, and seems destined to pass. A legislator could ask for an amendment to #LockTheClock to that bill. The clocks in the U.S. are managed by the Department of Transportation (a throwback to when train travel necessitated the use of uniform time) so it is not that much of a stretch. It could easily happen.

But until we have something like that proposed, what we have are the bills in front of us, so let’s take a look at those in the form of a handy table:

 

  Sunshine Protection Act (Senate)
(Sen. Rubio, SB 623, and HR 69)		 Daylight Act
(Rep. Stewart, HR 214)
Central Idea  Immediate switch to make DST the new Standard Time. Ability for states to adopt DST as their own Standard Time
Main points in favor 1. Ends clock changing for all states uniformly.
2. Puts all states into generally more popular DST unless they take immediate action to opt out.		 1. Gives states flexibility to end clock changing if they choose to do so.
2. Allows states the ability to go into the time zone most popular for that state.
Main points against 1. Moves too quickly.
2. Forces states to act that
may not be ready.		 1. Moves too slowly.
2. Creates situation of patchwork
and constant changes.
Current status Waiting for a hearing in Senate Commerce. Waiting for a hearing in House Commerce.

A compromise proposal would have the goal of retaining the points in favor of both bills, while eliminating the points against.

What Congress Could Do to Fix DST in the USA 

This proposal I think does that:

  1. Amend the Uniform Time Act to say that the mandate to change clocks will end after the Spring Forward Change in 2022.
  2. The time zones will be adjusted forward using the language from Senate Bill, Section 2(b)1.
  3. Allows any state that is on the border of a time zone to decide before March of 2022 which side of the line it wants to be on after the final “spring forward” switch.
    1. If a state doesn’t make any decision then it will move into the new Standard Time and so it will “spring forward” in March of 2022 and remain in that time permanently.
    2. If a time-zone-border state takes action through its legislature or through an initiated ballot measure on the ballot in 2021, that state can choose to “fall back” in November of 2022 and remain in that new standard time permanently.

Also, optionally, we may want to put language in the bill that directs the Department of Transportation to publish new sunrise times for each state with the instruction that those will be sent to each school district, so that before the school year the local districts can adjust their daily start times to allay any concerns about schools starting too early relative to the sunrise in the winter. (It’s a canard that later sunrises are dangerous for school children waiting at bus stops, but there is some reputable research showing that teens need more time to sleep in the mornings so this should probably happen anyway. And if we’ve learned anything in the last year, it’s that schools can be flexible about their schedules!)

We may also want to work with fire departments to have them adjust their guidelines that people check their smoke detectors at the point of the time change, and instead check them on the first day of fall and the first day of spring.

Can We Fix the Current DST Bills?

Now, if you were like me just recently, you might say that it would be best to amend these bills now… get them all fixed up before they even get a hearing! Well, that shows how you just don’t understand Washington!

Look, I don’t know anything except what I’m hearing from the staffers. In short, trying to amend the bills now is like negotiating against yourself. If someone has a better idea, let them float that idea, but let them do it in committee.

Right now, the one and only goal is to get them a hearing in front of a committee. That’s where advocates like me and others can make their voices heard and compromise can be reached.

Trying to adjust the bills now is like trying to wear fancy pants when you are on a zoom call—kinda pointless.

The Key to Fixing DST May Be Sen. Maria Cantwell

That leads me to finally wrap up this post with one central point: Let’s get a hearing for one of these bills!

For the bill that’s gotten the most attention, the one in the Senate, the person who holds the keys is Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington State. In Congress, the person who runs the committee decides what bills get a hearing, so she is the pivotal person.

Cantwell-dstMaria Cantwell, D-Washington State

 

What’s fun about that for me is this: Sen. Rubio, a Republican, just couldn’t get the last chair of the committee, another Republican, to give the bill a hearing. No reason was ever given publicly or privately that I heard about.

So now that control of the Senate has changed, that means Sen. Cantwell is in charge. How fantastic would it be for small-d democracy if a big-D Democrat is the person who made it possible for a Republican like Sen. Rubio to get his bill heard? I for one think it would be spectacularly fantastic because this is an issue that absolutely refuses to be put in an ideological box.

Also working in our favor is the fact that she represents Washington, a state whose legislators overwhelmingly voted for a bill to #LockTheClock in permanent Daylight Time, and was one of the first of the modern era to do so back in 2018.

That means our job—yours and mine if you are reading this—is to put the full court press on Sen. Cantwell to give this bill a hearing. We need to be respectful, etc., but we need to collectively ask everyone who might have any connection to her or her staff: When will you give the Sunshine Protection Act a hearing?

 

In the House, we have a similar situation, but unfortunately a bit more track record that is not promising. Essentially the same bill was introduced during the last congressional session, and the same chair, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey, never gave it a hearing.

Here, it could be partisan politics. The bill last session was introduced by a conservative Republican from Utah, who retired. The main sponsor now is another conservative Republican and he has only one cosponsor, yet another Republican. I’ve been telling people literally for six years now: If you want your bill to pass, get some cosponsors from the other party!

So if you happen to be Frank Pallone’s brother-in-law, or you have some other really strong connection, tell him to ignore the sponsors and give this bill a hearing. Or, he could give a hearing to the mirror bill to Rubio’s proposal, which does have a nice bipartisan set of cosponsors. I’m sure Sen. Rubio will be fine with someone else getting the credit on this, as long as he gets to have a night’s sleep that doesn’t get cut short by an hour.

 

Thanks for reading, and if you have ideas of how we can convince Sen. Cantwell or Rep. Pallone, be in touch. Or just go for it, and then let me know how it goes.

 

Daylight Saving Time/Standard Time Legislative Update 2021

Last year at this time I had just finished testifying in Atlanta, and I had high hopes that we’d get to 20 states that had passed some kind of bill to #LockTheClock in 2020.

Well, as we know, 2020 through us all for a loop. A few states that move really fast, like Wyoming and Louisiana, got a bill done before everything went to crap, but we ended up with only 15 states that have taken action.

This year is poised to blast through the progress from last year. The bills I’ve seen, testified on, and talked to sponsors about are absolutely blazing through.

Scott-Atlanta-testimony
My last trip before Covid was to Atlanta in support of Wes Cantrell

One big thing that’s different this year is that I’m able to be many more places at the same time, through the magic of zoom. One of the realities of this new world is that people are much more accustomed to meeting in virtual rooms. That means less time on an airplane, and much more time getting the word out, so that’s a net positive.

And the vibe I’m picking up everywhere is that it’s time to get this done. With all that’s going wrong in the world, let’s at least make the clocks work. That’s the general feeling I’m picking up all over the place.

What’s going on in your state?

Well, for the very latest, check out the Daylight Saving Time legislation page, which has a map and a list updated continuously. But for some of the story behind the story working roughly west to east, here are some updates:

Nevada

Around the country, there have been only a small handful of states that haven’t done anything to #LockTheClock, Nevada among them. That changed with the introduction of a bill this week.

The bill follows a lot of the best practices I laid out in this post.

  • It calls on the Feds to fix the U.S. laws.
  • It cooperatively works with California.

There’s a saying around state capitols that it takes five years to pass a good bill. Given the speed this is moving around the rest of the country, Nevada may be the first state to introduce a bill and pass it in the first year.

And if it does, California will be surrounded by states that want clock sanity, so maybe the legislators in California will finally get with the other states, and with the 70 percent of voters who said loud and clear they want something done. (It’s going to be a bit harder since the two biggest advocates for change in California’s legislature are both now out of state office, but it could still happen.)

If California does follow Nevada, it will be clear that what happens in Vegas stays in, well, at least it stays in the Pacific Time Zone.

Montana

Going just a bit west and north is the Big Sky state, which has the distinction of being the only state that touches two other time zones besides the one that it is in.

If the new law passes there, much of the credit will go to a citizen, George Moncure, who just likes to play tennis outside, and likes the sun later in the day to be able to do that with friends.

I’ve told him that if I had 50 guys like him, this thing would have been fixed years ago. He’s marshaled resources, found people to testify, worked with a sponsor… he’s done it all and made it easy for me.

If you think you’d like to make a difference in your state, but don’t think one person can make a difference, I hold up George as proof that one person can make a huge difference.

Montana’s legislative session is short, so it may not squeak out in time, but it may.

Interestingly, there’s another bill going through the legislature that George is not in favor of, a bill that would put Montana in Standard Time year round. Longtime fans of the #LockTheClock movement know that this blog doesn’t have a position on which time zone is best to lock into.

So, this state may be an interesting glimpse into which of those two choices a state legislature will opt for. More on that idea when we get to Texas.

New Mexico

One of the earliest legislators I ever wrote about on this blog was Sen. Cliff Pirtle, who has been advocating for clock sanity for years.

His bill for this year passed 6–2 out of its first committee, which I was honored to testify in front of by zoom. I was just glad to speak because I got elbowed out of a chance to speak when I drove down there to testify a couple of years ago.

DST testimony in N.M.

I understand that this year Pirtle has more bipartisan support for the bill, which should help it sail through a bit more quickly.

Texas

There are a bunch of bills in Texas this year, seven at last count.

The ones that are the most interesting to me are the two companion bills that would ask the voters if they prefer locking the clock in permanent Standard Time, or permanent Daylight Saving Time. These come from Rep. Lyle Larson, and Sen. Jose Menendez. (Note that these two sponsors come from different parties. It would be wonderful to see a bipartisan bill emerge from Texas on this clearly bipartisan issue.)

I’ve seen a zillion polls regarding DST, and in general it seems that about 70 percent of people want to #LockTheClock. If and when people are then asked what time they want the time locked into, again about 70 percent say they want Permanent DST, the time we have in the summer.

But the polling is often muddied. The options are jumbled together, or the language isn’t clear.

This proposal would make it crystal clear for voters: Permanent ST or DST? Pick one.

Now, what goes for Texas may not go for every state, but it will be interesting to watch the results. The state is huge, but in general is toward the western side of the Central Time zone, so it would be easy to make the case that it should be in Standard Time year round. People in Texas, from what I hear, also like football and barbecue, both of which are better with more sunshine.

Texas-bbq-dst

A really interesting vote to watch will be in the little chunk of Texas surrounding El Paso, which is in the Mountain Time zone. Their vote likely won’t be enough to sway the state, but it will be interesting to see if people there opt to remain different than the rest of the state and like their neighbors in New Mexico and Mexico, or if they would want to join with Dallas and Houston.

Just for the trove of new data we would get, I’m hoping that bill passes and the voters get to have a say this November.

For one thing, it will take a lot of the arguments that are currently in the shadows, and force them into the light. Do pharmaceutical sleep aids do better with more clock changing? I don’t know, but if there’s a campaign on both sides, and the pharmaceutical companies donate to one side, we’ll finally have a clear answer.

Oklahoma

The bills there would #LockTheClock for Oklahoma into Standard Time.

This will also be a fascinating one to watch. No state has opted to lock into Standard Time since Arizona did it in 1968, two years after the Uniform Time Act of 1966 made that the only legal choice for a state.

Every other state that’s passed a law or resolution in the last four years has passed something saying that it wants to lock into permanent Daylight Time, so Oklahoma would be going the other direction.

Given that it is on the western edge of the Central Time zone, that makes some sense for people there. The sun wouldn’t come up until awfully late in the winter. How will golfers react to the idea of sunsets around 7:30 instead of 8:30 p.m. in the summer? I haven’t seen any organized opposition yet, and one bill already passed out of its first committee with a unanimous vote, so this bill might go all the way, which would mean that Oklahoma could be the first state in nearly 50 years to #LockTheClock.

Dad joke alert…

Will the Sooner state #LockTheClock sooner than the rest of the country?

North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas

These four states, like a stack of delicious pancakes in the heartland of the country, have some strong time zone similarities:

  • They all have a weird line vaguely around the 100th Meridian that splits the time zones from the eastern population centers from western farm and ranch lands.
  • They all have bills/resolutions calling to move to permanent DST.
  • All those bills are sailing through. One bill that I thought was doomed in North Dakota is now doing very well. I’m glad I didn’t kill it!

Illinois

The land of Lincoln has had a few bills each year for the last few years, but this may be the year something happens. The bill that I think may have the best shot is the one that has bipartisan sponsors. This is the ultimate in bipartisan issues, so it makes sense to have sponsors from both parties.

The only part of this bill that I disagree with is the fact that it just kind of announces that Illinois will be moving to DST permanently. That’s not actually allowed under the current federal law. I’ll try to work with the sponsors here and see if we can get the bill amended to something that has a better chance of making a difference, which may in turn help it to get voted on, approved, and signed by the governor.

The Illinois legislature meets essentially year-round, so it may be a while before we get news here.

Indiana

I’m not going to write about the states not doing anything, except I do want to mention Indiana, which has a particularly weird history with DST.

If I was in Indiana, I’d be reading the tea leaves of what’s going on around the country, especially in DC, and I’d realize that there’s a pretty good chance that Permanent DST is coming for everyone.

Perhaps more than the residents of any other state, Hoosiers may not be happy about this. The sun would come up awfully late in the winter. It’s just nuts that Indiana is in the same time zone as, say, Vermont.

Their chance to fix this before it gets done to them is now. Why is there no action? I just don’t get it.

Georgia

Wes Cantrell is another hero of the #LockTheClock movement. He’s been pushing bills for a couple of years now, and actually getting them passed.

This year Georgia has a couple of bills that seem contradictory on the surface, but as Rep. Cantrell has explained to me, they actually are not.

Right now the federal government doesn’t allow states to go to Permanent DST, only Permanent ST. One of the bills in Georgia would have that state do what’s legal now, and move to Standard Time year round. The other bill would have the state move to DST year round at the point that it becomes legal.

Sort of like with Texas, this will be a fascinating dynamic to watch play out.

If the feds move quickly, the Standard Time discussion will be moot. If not, however, Georgia could remain in Eastern Standard Time all year. Georgians may not hate that. The state is on the western edge of their time zone, but the effects aren’t as pronounced because the time zone isn’t as wide near the bottom as it is at the top. (I always thought the Eastern Time Zone looked a bit like a funnel.) Also, because the state is so far south the swing in daylight time isn’t as dramatic as it is up north.

But tourism is a big industry in Georgia. Also, the state is probably a bit more socially and economically wrapped up with Florida, so it may want to stay in the same time zone with that state.

Will that state move to Standard Time, like it, and want to stay, or will it try it for a year, and realize that it wants Permanent Daylight Time? I don’t know the answer to that, and really the people there probably don’t either, but it could be an interesting test case that we can all learn from.

New York

In some ways, this is the ballgame right here.

For one thing, a lot of states are super tightly integrated into New York City. I was testifying in Connecticut where a bill seemed likely to pass (until the TV industry killed it, but that’s another story.) Part of the reason it was going to pass is a compromise I had a small part in brokering.

A representative from the part of Connecticut that has a ton of people who live there but work in “The city” (as they call New York City) said that he just couldn’t support something that might see people have to change time zones every morning on the way to work and again on the way home.

Fair enough.

So the compromise was that instead of Connecticut being dependent on Massachusetts before it adopts Atlantic Standard Time — which is the trick that they would use to help deal with current law about only being able to go into Permanent ST — it would be dependent on Massachusetts and New York doing the same.

The same kind of thing is at play with New Jersey. It would be a bit odd for the countless people that drive through the Lincoln tunnel or over the George Washington Bridge or take the PATH train if they had to change time zones each time.

And with New Jersey, you need to bring in Pennsylvania and probably Delaware, etc.

So. Yeah. New York is kind of the key.

Also New York is pretty much the center of the broadcasting world. As far as I can tell, it’s broadcasters who are the most rattled by the idea of more daylight for everyone later in the days. They don’t want to come out and say it, but they want it to be dark outside so people will come inside and sit on the couch and watch TV.

How hard will they push when actual bills start getting hearings? Or will they push so hard behind the scenes that the bills won’t get hearings at all?

New York’s legislature meets all year, so we won’t get any quick answers, but you can be sure that I’ll be paying close attention to the four bills, so far, that have been introduced there.

Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut

Another hero of the #LockTheClock movement is Tom Emswiler of Massachusetts. They are now considering a bill that would take the recommendation of the study committee that said moving to Permanent Atlantic Time would be best for the Bay State (report downloadable from this link). Tom gets a ton of the credit there.

It started when he wrote a column for his local paper. That turned into a law that ordered a comprehensive study. That study was conducted by consulting tons of experts, debating for hours, and the end result was that the best thing the state could do is move to Permanent Atlantic Standard Time, as long as a couple of neighboring New England states came along.

Well, now those states are slowly coming along.

They are getting some resistance. It was ESPN, based in Connecticut, that has previously killed proposals there, but overwhelming bipartisan support may finally push back against that.

New Hampshire has a creative lawmaker, Josh Yokela, pushing for practical solutions there, and his bill may get signed this year.

I disagree with national broadcasters when they want to see it darker, earlier, so people will watch more TV. I do think they have a small nugget of a valid point in not wanting to see the continental United States move to five time zones from the current four. I don’t think that will happen because of the Connecticut-New York issue. But if that was solved, and we had states in the Atlantic Time Zone, it could be a bit confusing for a while.

But the reality is that solar noon is way off clock time for the New England States. If politics were out of the equation, those states probably would be in the Atlantic Time Zone, in Standard Time, all year long.

After all the dust settles with the efforts to #LockTheClock, will we have five time zones in the lower 48? Probably not, but it’s a fun thought experiment of where you might draw the line that works for solar time as well as for the natural associations of populations.

 

Summary

I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk around the country.

The one thing that seems to tie all of these conversations together is the fact that this topic is no longer a sideshow. For years it was discussed in a few states with a few lighthearted legislators who didn’t mind a bit of snickering going on when their bills were brought up, and then killed.

There’s still plenty of levity with this topic. In a recent hearing I was participating in the committee chair couldn’t find the sponsor, and he joked that she must be operating in a different time zone.

But once the jokes are done, and people realize that approximately 28 people are going to needlessly die this year because of the “spring forward” time change, and that countless more will have heart attacks, strokes, workplace accidents and more, the joking fades away and the voting starts. And this year more than any other year, legislators are voting yes.

Will state legislatures be able to fix this? Not on their own, and in an upcoming post I’ll take a look at what’s going on in DC, but there’s no question that state legislatures passing resolutions and laws is a hugely important effort that is absolutely getting noticed in Washington.

And if the U.S. can get this fixed, then maybe Europe will get out of its current rut, and it will be able to fix this, too.

Then instead of dreading the clock change every spring and every fall, we’ll just be able to live our lives and someday our grandchildren will wonder what the heck we were doing changing the clock twice a year.

Thanks again for reading, and keep in touch!

Daylight Saving Time Is Dead, The Clocks Just Haven’t Gotten The News Yet

Just a quick post from a hotel room in Topeka, the Kansas state capitol, to let you know that Daylight Saving Time is dead.

Now, we will still have to move our clocks this spring, and there’s a 50-50 chance that we will have to do it again next year, but I think that will be it.

You see, I’ve been writing about this issue for nearly seven years now, and I have seen the evolution firsthand. When I started people thought I was a kook. (I probably still am a kook, but that’s another story.)

When California’s initiative passed by a huge margin, and then Florida’s legislature passed a bill in 2018, people started taking the issue a bit more seriously.

In 2019 and 2020, when I talked to legislators and testified around the country, people would ask me if this was really going to happen, really wanting to know.

Well, after years of pushing the rock up the hill, this year I’m just kind of a witness as the rock rolls down the hill.

A good example is Nebraska, the first state outside of my own where I’ve testified in person twice.

The first time I came I got a polite reception, made all my points, had great discussions with lawmakers, but the bill just died.

This year I came to testify, but the sponsor of the bill, Tom Briese, (with the help of his staff) made so many good points that my main job was to talk about how this bill interplays with what is going on in Washington. The feeling I got from the hearing, from talking to a couple of other lawmakers in the hall, and from the staff, is that this bill is a done deal.

 

DST-NebraskaMe having a bad hair day in the Nebraska wind.

Lincoln is just a couple of hours drive through the heartland to Topeka, so I buzzed down to talk to the sponsor of a resolution introduced yesterday in Kansas, Shannon Francis. He’s got so many cosponsors for his resolution that he doesn’t see any problem getting a positive vote for it this year.

It’s not just in America’s Breadbasket, either. New York State has a promising bill and an active sponsor and staff. The silence in years past from N.Y. was disheartening, so the fact that it’s now an open question is huge.

And in many of the 33 states that have yet to pass something, the feeling of inevitability is in the air. Get something done so that we’re not the last state in the country seems to be the new attitude.

So that’s why I say that DST is dead, and the clocks just don’t know it yet. It’s sort of the way that a fish flops around even after it’s been caught and is on the deck of a boat. DST is still flopping around, but…

(And by the way, when I say that DST is dead, what I mean is that the clock changing is dead. The only decision to be made is which time zone each state will lock into, and lawmakers in nearly every state seem pretty clear about that. Texas is looking at asking the voters if they should lock into Permanent DST or Permanent ST, and a couple of others may do that. Once those decisions are made, the time zones will just be known as Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, and Pacific Time, etc. What a relief that will be!)

So, there’s still some work to be done, and I’m still happy to work with lawmakers around the country and in DC, but now it’s just me giving a slight nudge or hint here and there. The ball is rolling down the hill.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

 

 

Ohio Legislature and Daylight Saving Time

Here is the transcript of my testimony to the House State and Local Government Committee, which is considering a Joint Resolution.

 

 

Dear Chairman Wiggam,
Ranking member Kelly,
And members of the Ohio House State and Local Government Committee,

I am the leader of the international movement to #LockTheClock, also known as a guy and his blog.

For more than six years now I’ve been writing about this topic, but in the last couple of years the volume has turned way up, and I’ve now testified in a dozen states, been featured on the BBC, the New York Times and the Daily Show.

I’m very sorry I can’t be with you there today in person, and I look forward a post-Covid era when I can be there.

Yates-DST-Ohio

I could wax eloquently for hours about the evils of changing the clock twice a year. Just ask my wife, she’ll tell you this is true. But I’ve seen how this joint resolution sailed through the Ohio Senate, and I watched the sponsors introduce this bill and saw the positive overall reactions, so I don’t think there’s a need to do a lot of convincing.

Several questions did come up that I thought I might shed a bit more light on.

First was a question from Rep. Ginter, who first expressed huge support, and then asked: Why hasn’t this been done before?

The reason is this: Tied up in this issue are two questions.

1. Should we stop changing the clock twice a year.
2. What time zone should we land in.

The confusion about the second question is what ties up progress on the first.

That seems to be fading away now. When I first started blogging about this there was no action anywhere in the country. Then I put together a research page showing all the death, economic hardship and overall negative consequences that result from stealing an hour of sleep from the whole country one Sunday each Spring.

After that research started spreading, states started treating this like the serious public policy issue that it is, and not some quirky issue. We now have 15 states around the country that have passed something in the last two years. And federal bills have gotten more great bipartisan support than ever before.

As to the second question… That’s something that I think individual states should grapple with after the decision is made to Lock the Clock.

Rep. Becker brought up the temporary change that was made in 1974. That was a disaster. It was ordered by Pres. Nixon in the depths of Watergate, and instead of being planned for in advance it was put into place in January. Changing the clocks in the spring or fall is bad, changing the clocks in January is just torture. Congress got rid of that after one year. It was such a failed experiment that it is part of why we haven’t had a lot of progress on fixing this in the years since then. Now people in general are suggesting a much more phased in and science-based approach.

Rep. Wiggam brought up the fact that constituents really want to fix this, and he is exactly right about that. He also brought up studies about the health effects. Yes. There are a lot. Heart attacks, strokes, workplace accidents, traffic accidents, and just overall deaths climb in the days after the Spring Forward time change.

And thank you Rep. Wilkin for bringing some levity to the issue. There is a lot of that, and it’s why some of the best explanations of why we need to fix this are found in memes and funny videos. I collect those on my blog, and they are always the most popular pages I have each year.

This resolution is a great first step. The next step will be a bill. I’m happy to work with you in any ways that I can to help you take that next step in the coming months.

Yours very truly,

-Scott Yates

Model Testimony to Fix Daylight Saving Time

I’ve been working with state and federal lawmakers and staffs for years now, and often testify when it works out with my schedule and frequent flier miles.

There’s a hearing tomorrow in Maryland that I would love to be at, but I have a small cold with a cough, and given the Coronavirus fears, I’m worried that the other passengers on the plane might toss me out the emergency exit door somewhere over Ohio.

So, here’s a version of the testimony that I would have given.

If you live in a state that has a pending bill, I recommend that you go and testify if you want to see an end to the clock-changing insanity.

To do that, just find the bill on this page, and then look for the lead sponsor. Contact that person, and tell them that you want to testify.

When you get to the statehouse on the day of the hearing, there will probably be some kind of sign-up form. Find that to make sure they call on you.

Then when it is your turn, you can either speak from the heart, or read prepared testimony. I typically write something, but then just end up speaking without the notes. Writing it beforehand just helps me make sure I’m going to get all my points in.

Sometimes the sessions are recorded, sometimes not. If you do it, be sure to get someone to take your picture. You’ll want that later for sure. (You can send it to me and I’ll tweet about it from my #LockTheClock account or write about it on this blog.)

To help, there are some videos of a couple of the times I’ve testified on my videos page.

If you can, ask the sponsor to sit next to you, so that if there are questions about the legislative process, or whatever, you can defer to the lawmaker. That’s what I did recently in Atlanta:

Scott-Atlanta-testimonyPicture from WSB TV

 

And then just speak as clearly as you can, and make sure the mic is turned on.

If I was in Maryland tomorrow, this is more or less what I’d say:

 

Dear members of the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs committee,

My name is Scott Yates. I’m the leader of the international movement known as #LockTheClock, but really I am just a citizen with a blog. There’s no foundation or institute or whatever. It’s just me.

Six years ago I started writing a blog because changing the clocks just annoyed me. Rather than complain about it, my wife challenged me to do something about it.

At first, I didn’t do much, I just wrote blog posts. But then I started reading the academic research about what happens when we change the clocks.

These studies were alarming. Heart attacks go up. Strokes. Traffic accidents. Workplace accidents. 

I collected that research, and put it on a page on my blog. That collection of research then lead to legislators contacting me, and journalists around the world asking me to help them understand this issue.

You see, this was once viewed as a quirky, almost meaningless issue. The clocks are the clocks, and certainly somebody somewhere has a reason why they are this way.

It turns out that there is no good reason for changing the clocks. The history is a painful collection of diversions from other issues.

In short, the farmers are not the reason for Daylight Saving Time, and in fact the farmers have always been against the clock changing.

We do it now, really, only because we’ve always done it. The reasons are lost to the mists of history.

The thing that we know now that we didn’t fully understand when the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was signed into law was that the actual changing of the clocks is deadly. The most recent study issued just on the single issue of traffic safety says that 28 deaths per year are directly attributable to the Spring Forward time change. That’s on top of all the other deaths from heart attacks and more.

This is no longer a quirky issue, it is a legitimate public policy health issue. If a toaster came out that killed or injured hundreds of people every year, how fast would the government take action?

In short: The Government is in charge of the clocks. The clocks are killing people. It’s time to Lock The Clock.

Now, your next question may be: What good does this bill do? We need the federal government to take action.

I can tell you that every time a state bill passes, I let the sponsors of the two main bills in front of Congress know, and they are very interested for the news. And they use that information.

For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio has a bill to #LockTheClock. His co-sponsors include Senator Patty Murray of Washington State. She signed up immediately after the Washington state legislature passed a bill to put Washington State into permanent Daylight Saving Time.

So will this bill in front of you today actually fix the clocks for the people of Maryland, or will it just be a signal to the U.S. Congress? I don’t know, but either way, it is progress in the right direction.

There is no partisan angle to this bill at all. There is only good government. In these fraught times, the citizens are looking to our leaders to actually do something to show that government can actually work on behalf of the people. This is just the thing that you can do today that will make things better for real people.

Thank you very much, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

 

2020 #LockTheClock Legislative Update On Fixing Daylight Saving Time

State legislatures in the U.S. are an amazing part of our democracy. They vary a lot, and in many ways take on the personality of the states they are in.

As a whole, I find them to be far less dysfunctional than the U.S. Congress.

In part because most of them are limited in time, and March 1 is more or less the halfway point for many of the legislative sessions.

So, how are we doing in 2020?

Great!

Just as a recap, I have been following this stuff for six years now. For the first four years I watched as dozens of bills died. In 2017 Massachusetts passed a bill calling for a study, so that was a glimmer of progress.

Then in 2018 Florida actually passed a bill, on the heels of California voters passing a proposition that had been proposed by the legislature. 

Then in 2019 another seven states passed some sort of bill. I listed them all on this page.

How many bills will pass this year? My prediction, and my hope, is that nine states will pass something. Then when you toss in Arizona and Hawaii, where the clock is already locked, we will have 20 states in 2020 that have taken action to end the insanity of Daylight Saving Time switching.

Here’s a look at progress here in 2020:

South Carolina

The first state to get something all the way through the process in 2020 is the Palmetto State, where the governor signed a bill into law on February 3rd!

The law mirrors Florida’s law, saying that as soon as the Feds allow it, they want to go into Permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Georgia

The difference between a bill and a law, I’ve found, is often the energy and grit of the sponsor. In Georgia, voters are well represented by Wes Cantrell, who has three bills percolating. I testified there on one of the bills, but I support all three of them.

My bet is that the one that will get signed is the one that will match the laws in Florida and South Carolina, creating a solid block in the southeastern part of the U.S.

Maryland

There’s a hearing this Thursday in Maryland, which may be extra helpful because it will get some headlines in the state many of the lawmakers and staff members in Washington D.C. actually live in.

The proposed bill there is great. It is more like the bills from the South, which just call for Maryland to move to Permanent DST, than the bills from north of Maryland, which often call for moving to DST but only if all the surrounding states do that, too.

As with all the other states, the legal impact of passing something won’t be huge, but the message it sends to congress will be gigantic.

Wyoming

DST-wyoming-dan-laursen

Again here, a hard-working and persistent sponsor makes all the difference. I was honored to come to Wyoming and testify on behalf of Dan Laursen. His bill last year fell one vote short, but this year it looks like it may make it across the finish line.

Illinois

There is a lot of action in Illinois. This could be huge, because if California, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts have all taken action, it will look like New York State is being left out of the conversation among the most populous states. And if New York comes over to the light side, well, that’s the ball game.

Michigan

I had a delightful time testifying in Michigan a couple of years ago, and then I submitted written testimony last year.

When I testified, the proposal was to move the state into Permanent Daylight Saving Time. I pointed out that they might want to consider Permanent Standard Time for two reasons:

  1. Michigan is so far north that the days are very short in the winter and long in the summer so even in Standard Time citizens there would get the sunsets that much of the rest of the country gets in Daylight time, and,
  2. Because four counties on the western edge of the Upper Peninsula are in the Central Time Zone, there could be some weird discrepancies in time in that little zone. Going to Permanent Standard Time would allow them to unify the state. 

The bill didn’t change when I was there, but the current bill under consideration does just that. 

I’m often falsely accused of advocating for Permanent Daylight Saving Time for all. What I actually think is that we should all #LockTheClock and then the states that are on the border of a time zone should decide what time zone works best for that state. Michigan is a classic example where moving to permanent Standard Time makes sense.

Utah

A real champion of fixing Daylight Saving Time is Rep. Ray Ward of Utah, who is also a medical doctor. We were on a panel together hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, and then we got to have dinner together after at the airport on the way home.

In 2019, he was able to get a resolution signed in Utah, which is a nice symbolic step forward, but doesn’t have the force of law.

The bill that has now passed both the House and the Senate and awaits a signature from the Governor, would indeed be a law.

It follows the cooperative model. Before Utah can #LockTheClock, the feds need to fix the law AND other surrounding states need to pass similar laws.

That is another important step forward.

Mississippi

There are six different bills working their way down the great Mississippi legislative process.

I’m watching these closely and working with the sponsors as much as possible for one key reason: The one person in the world doing more to stop progress on #LockTheClock right now is from there.

You see, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, a former senator in the Mississippi State Senate, is now a U.S. Senator, and is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Why does that matter? That’s the committee where the Sunshine Act is now stuck, not getting a hearing.

Why is that?

Nobody seems to know.

But my hope and goal is that if the Mississippi legislature—the same body in which he once served—takes action that he won’t be able to help but notice and he will release his stranglehold on the federal bill.

Other states

I could say something about many of the 30-odd states working on this, but this is probably enough for today. Suffice it to say that things are moving, and the states that decide to wait on this are the ones that will be left out of the conversation.

If you are a state legislator and you worry your bill is stalling, or you just want to talk through strategies that will help you get something passed and signed, be in touch. I’m happy to talk.

Killer Clocks – The Hotlanta message about Daylight Saving Time

Because this effort to fix Daylight Saving Time is basically just me writing blog posts, emailing legislators and talking to people, I never really step back and do any kind of planning or organizing.

I certainly never have marketing meetings to talk about the message.

But yesterday that happened for me in the Georgia state capitol.

And boy did it pay off.

OK, first the message, and then the back story:

#LockTheClock-fix-DST

Great, eh?

Only took me six years to come up with that. Jeesh.

OK, here’s the backstory:

For a while now I’ve been communicating with Rep. Wes Cantrell in Georgia. Like other legislators around the country, I immediately liked the guy. There are definitely both Democrats and Republicans who care about this, and the thing they always have in common is a tendency toward Good Government and being responsive to their constituents.

He told me the bill was coming up for a crucial hearing, and I have a bunch of frequent flier miles and hotel points, so I told him I’d be happy to fly down to testify. I’m so glad I went, because I got something really valuable in return: A clean, coherent message.

When I go to states to testify, I typically spend some time with the sponsor, and then sometimes there’s some impromptu lobbying, and quite often some talking to reporters. As a former reporter, I’m always happy to do that.

But I never really listen to what I’m saying, I just blurt out as many facts as I can. 

Yesterday, however, after the hearing, I got to sit down with Rep. Cantrell and a couple of other people who had been in the hearing room, including his wife. One of those in the room said that when I said one thing, the whole issue really crystalized for him.

The government is in charge of clocks. The clocks are killing people. It’s time to Lock The Clock.

And then one of the reporters who was there featured that snippet in his excellent report from the hearing. (Also, loved the Girl Scouts!) (Also, the local Fox station also did a fantastic story.)

So now I have it.

I got the hashtag #LockTheClock when I testified in Michigan, and now I have, essentially, a vision statement for the movement.

The first line is a given: The government, properly, has an interest in a unified and coherent system for time.

The second line is the gut punch. It may not have been clear when the Uniform Time Act of 1966 passed, but it is crystal clear now that the time change kills people every year.

And the last line is the call to action. 

Feel free to share that however you like to share these things.

 

Thanks to Rep. Cantrell, and all the people I talked to in Georgia, who were as lovely and helpful as could be. Thanks to Noor Younis for the background photo. 

And thanks to you for reading this, and helping to get that message out.

This just may be the year!

I’m out of order? You’re out of order! This whole thing is out of order!

I testified Monday in Wyoming on a very sensible Daylight Saving Time bill, and it sailed out of committee on an 8-1 vote.

(That one no vote was sort of smiling as he voted no. I think he was fine with it passing. He was distinguished — my way of saying he was really old — and I think he was voting to represent the constituency of people who remember when Standard Time was more common before the Uniform Time Act of 1966.)

My testimony was impromptu, mostly just answering questions. It was a respectful and legitimate conversation on the merits. I was very happy to hear the Farm Bureau testify that it supported the bill. The lobbyist from the bureau alluded to the tortured history that farmers have with Daylight Saving Time, and in a sense he saw this bill as a chance to put all that, finally, to rest.

Yesterday I testified in my home state of Colorado. The last time I testified in Colorado the proceedings were not so respectful as I was personally attacked by members of the House, and I was even told that my comments were out of order. I wanted to stand up, like Al Pacino, and yell: “I’m out of order??? You’re out of order! This whole place is out of order!!!!”

But I didn’t. I just apologized meekly and moved on. That was two years ago.

My plan going into this year was to speak truth to power, and if I got ruled out of order, well, maybe those interested can just read this or watch this video and see what I would have said before I get cut off.

In the end, I didn’t deliver these remarks below exactly. You can read an excellent writeup of what happened from Alex Burness in the Denver Post, but the comments below were the heart of what I wanted to say. What I learned after my testimony made me grow even more cynical about the process. See below for that.

 

 

Dear members of the kill committee,

My name is Scott Yates, and I’m the leader of the LockTheClock movement to end the insanity of changing the clocks twice per year.

I’ve testified all over the country on this topic, and the interchange with the lawmakers is always respectful, and very much on the actual topic of the significant health and safety concerns related to the government mandating that the entire population change all the clocks by an hour twice per year. Except in Colorado.

When I testified here in Colorado, I pointed out that the main reason that the ski industry said they were against fixing what is broken with time is that they needed morning sunshine to examine the ski lifts. I suggested that we all pitch in and buy them some flashlights.

That’s when I was ruled out of order.

So I won’t do that today. No way.

After that, I started doing some research, and came to a startling conclusion. In short, the whole “morning light” thing was not the real reason. I don’t know for sure what the real reason is, but I suspect money is involved. Once a ski resort has sold you a lift ticket, it doesn’t make any more money on you the more you ski. It only makes more money if you stop skiing and get into a resteraunt. The only way to get you off the mountain is to make it dark.

But as I sit here today, I don’t actually think the ski industry even cares that much about this issues. Indeed, I think that if you kill this bill today, what is happening is simply a raw expression of power.

I have been working on this issue for six years now, and I pay close attention to what’s happening around the country. Two states—Arizona and Hawaii—have locked the clock in Standard Time. Another 11 states have passed some kind of bill or resolution to stay in Daylight Time year round. Nearly all the rest have some kind of bill working to #LockTheClock. Only six states aren’t doing anything right now.

Also I’m working closely with the office of Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Rob Bishop, both of whom have federal bills that would Lock the Clock, or allow states to do so more easily. Both have lots of bipartisan support, and in this post-impeachment world where legislators are anxious to say that they indeed did get something done and the only way to do so is with a bipartisan bill, both offices are optimistic that they will pass something this year.

But I’d like to draw your attention to five of the states that have passed legislation to fix Daylight Saving Time:

  1. Washington,
  2. Oregon,
  3. California,
  4. Utah, and
  5. Maine.

From Mount Hood and Olympic Valley in the west to Sugarloaf in the east, or Jackson or Park City here in the Mountain Time Zone, there are a lot of ski resorts in those five states.

On Monday one of the 8 Yes votes in Wyoming was the representative whose district includes Jackson. No pushback at all. In the other states with a significant ski industry, absolutely no opposition. Nothing.

Does the sun interact with mountains differently in Colorado than it does in California? Do clocks work differently for skiers in Maine or Oregon?

Which leads me to think that maybe I was wrong, that the ski industry doesn’t really care about getting more people off the mountain and into restaurants? What if they don’t care about this issue that much at all?

Then what are we left with? What possible reason could the ski industry have in wanting to kill this bill year after year?

The only possible explanation I’m left with is that the ski lobbyists are killing this just because they can.

Larry Bird, one of the greats of the game of basketball, would sometimes deliver a hip check or make some unsportsmanlike comment, and not get called for it. Why would he do that? Precisely to show that he was the master in that building.

Similarly, I think the ski lobbyists use this topic simply as a way to flex.

Think about it from this perspective: Let’s say that you are doing a town hall in, say, Aurora, and a constituent stands up and says, “I understand that federal law may change, and we could have had a chance to vote on which time zone we like best, and you voted against giving us, the people who elected you, a voice. Why is that?” And then you respond with your voice trailing off: “The ski industry doesn’t have enough flashlights.” 

It is beyond absurd—it is the stuff that turns people off to politics, and especially in this era, that is a shame.

This is good government 101. The government regulates time. The way that it does so right now kills and injures people. There is no partisan angle, just historically bad management of clocks. Previous generations of politicians didn’t fully realize the high cost in life and money that clock-switching caused, but now we do know and yet we do nothing. Why?

Because of some lobbyists? Because of the raw exercise of power under the gold dome?

Imagine yourself again at that town hall, and when that constituent asks, imagine how great it would be for you to say: “You know what, I voted for you. I voted to give you that choice. It cost me politically, but I did it anyway because my job is to govern, and if we can’t even govern the clocks, then what does that say? So I voted to bring some sanity to the clocks, and to give you a chance to be heard.”

So I ask you today: Hold your head up high and vote yes.

Thank you very much.

Colorado-dst-testify

Postscript: How Democracy Dies, Just a Little

So, that was the testimony that I didn’t give, but my comments included a lot of that, but not the part calling out the lobbyists so directly.

Also, the reason that I had used Aurora as my hypothetical is that I thought the person most likely to buck the party leadership and vote would be Rhonda Fields of Aurora. If you click on that link you’ll see that she’s on the “Kill Committee” also known as “State Affairs.”

And she may have been willing to go her own way on that day. But she wasn’t on that committee on the day that bill was heard. 

Colorado is a pretty clean state. We have these great rules that, for example, make it so that every bill gets a hearing. Most states aren’t like that, and bills often just die with no hearing at all.

But there are still ways to kill bills, and one is to assign them to the “state affairs” committee, a group whose mandate is so nebulous and membership so small that it can kill just about anything.

So the ski industry lobbyists worked with the leadership of the State Senate to assign this bill to the kill committee, and then just to make sure it would die, the leadership changed the membership of the committee just for one day.

Yes, just on February 19th, 2020, Sen. Fields was not on that committee, and she was replaced by Sen. Kerry Donovan. 

Why Donovan?

Well, for one she’s from Vail. Not just from Vail, her family practically founded the town. She talked about how her brother worked as one of the guys who inspects ski lifts, so she was insulted at my “flashlight” comments.

In short, she was about as reliable of a vote as you could find who would be willing to carry water for the ski industry lobbyists.

I was sunk before I walked into the room.

But the fact that the ski lobbyists had to go to such extreme measures to kill the bill, I think means the gig will soon be up.

And besides, the amendment that we offered was a good one. It didn’t commit Colorado to do anything, just to take a preference poll that will only take effect if the federal law changes. Really, if the ski industry was smart they would agree to it so that they can try to convince Coloradans to stay in Standard Time year round. If daylight time would really mean death and dismemberment of ski employees, they can try to make that case to the voters and see if the voters believe it more than I do. Maybe the voters will buy it, they’ve believed less credible claims than that.

If the ski industry does not make that case, it will be stuck with the federal law, which most likely will be putting us into permanent Daylight Time.

The Denver Post story by Alex Burness was so great, because it put right into print so everyone now knows what was formerly known only by people who hang around the capitol a lot: The ski industry is super powerful in Colorado, and is stopping the legislature from doing what it would otherwise want to do.

Take on the ski industryNow that the very concept of going against the ski industry is out in the open and being talked about, it’s kind of like the Emperor with No Clothes. It only takes one person saying it publicly, and the gig is up.

Times are changing, and the time is going to be changing.

Model Daylight Saving Time State Legislation for 2020

There were two basic approaches through last year to fix DST:

  1. A bill that says the state will go into permanent Daylight Saving Time, either when neighboring states do it, or when it is allowed by the federal government to do so.
  2. A resolution calling on the federal government to allow the states to go into permanent Daylight Saving Time.

This year, we came up with a third approach in Colorado, which is to ask the voters which time zone they prefer once the feds pass an act.

I posted links to model language for all three below.

If you are a legislator currently working on this topic, well, you might consider this third way.

If you want to do it the first way, and think you have the votes to get it enacted… Go for it! (And let me know how I can help.) If you do not have the votes, however, maybe you could amend your current bill with this “Colorado” approach?

It is more substantial than a resolution, and it may help spur the change that we need out of Washington.

Model Daylight Saving Time bills – Neighboring state dependent

Some of the ones that have been enacted are:

Delaware

Maine

Oregon

Washington

You might also check in for the latest on this legislative page because there are a lot of these.

Model DST bills – Waiting on the Feds

The three enacted so far are:

Florida

South Carolina

Tennessee

Model DST resolutions

Utah

Kentucky

Arkansas

And one that I wrote back in 2015.

Third Way: Call for vote of the people before Federal Mandate

This is the complex, but legally sound way to ask for a vote of the people to figure out what permanent time they would prefer in the (likely) event that federal law suddenly takes away the clock-changing.

DST-colorado-ammendment

To download the PDF as created by the legislative lawyers in Colorado, click here.

If you have another approach, or think there is some language that would be helpful to legislators, please contact me.

And Good Luck! This really seems to be the tipping-point year.

Legislation and Daylight Saving Time – The Magellan Straits

The 2019 legislative season is shaping up to be the busiest ever in the fight to #LockTheClock and fix Daylight Saving Time for good.

So busy and so hot, in fact, that it’s making me lose sleep.

Do you have a trick when you can’t sleep? I do. I listen to an audio book. The trick for me is to find one that is boring enough that it lulls you to sleep, but not so boring that your mind wanders instead of listening.

I was trying to fall back asleep in the wee hours this morning, so I listened to a book about the Middle Ages. I came in at a section about Magellan.

Ferdinand-Magellan

He was, of course, the Portuguese sailor who was the first to sail from the old world around the new world, and then back home going west the whole way. He was the first to circumnavigate the planet, importantly around the bottom of South America where the straits are now named for him.

(Well, his expedition made it around the world, anyway. He didn’t personally make it, having run afoul of some native chiefs on a Pacific island unhappy with how the sailors were taking advantage of the native women.)

He set out with five ships and 270 men. One ship and 18 men made it back to Europe, and when they got home they had lots to tell about things that had never been seen by Europeans before, including penguins and bananas.

And they also noticed something strange: Although they had kept meticulous logs of their days away, their calendar was off by one day from the calendars kept in Europe.

This was the first group to circumnavigate the planet, proving that it was round, something that had been theorized by people going back to the ancient Greeks.

But none of those theories, and none of the astronomers or big thinkers of the day had figured out the need for an International Date Line. It took actually sailing around the world to make clear the need for that.

No Date Line?

Just to be clear, the planet spun on its axis for eons with no need for an International Date Line. That line was only needed so that as people who kept calendars traveled around the world, they could all keep in synch. The idea of the calendar, and the need to keep it in synch with other calendars, is entirely a human invention.

So it is with time zones. I’ve written about this before, and the history is clear on this. We have time zones because as the trains started zipping across the land, we had a need for uniform times. No longer could the time be set by the one guy in town who set the town clock and looked up at the sun to decide when it was noon.

That’s why time zones are controlled in the U.S. by the Department of Transportation.

Time Zones Kill

With all that in mind, I’m now volunteering to help legislators from around the country (when I can spare the time from my day job of fixing fake news.)

With all of them, I share the research. I talk about the politics (including the story of the legislator in Arizona who tried to start changing the clock twice a year and was so overwhelmed with angry constituent response that he held a press conference to announce he was killing his own bill.)

And the bigger message that I try to share with all of them is just this: The very notion of “time” is just an agreement among people. Shouldn’t we strive to live in a world where such an agreement does not kill people?

I mean, imagine this scenario:

 

Bob: Hey, Ralph, want to get lunch? Say 1 p.m.?

Ralph: Well, I’d love to get lunch, but if we do it at 1, there’s a chance I’ll have a heart attack and die. Can we do it at 12:30 instead?

Bob: No way.

Ralph: Why not?

Bob: The farmers.

 

People who have looked into the issue (and fans of John Oliver) know that the farmers have nothing to do with Daylight Saving Time, and never have, except as a giant PR stunt and a scapegoat.

No, the reason we are forced to change clocks twice a year is, well, inertia. We do it because that’s what we do.

All the science, all of it, says that changing clocks is a bad idea, and yet we keep doing it.

But with the flurry of activity in the state legislatures here in the U.S., and in the European Parliament, and the vote by the people of California, it is becoming clear that the clock is ticking for mindless clock-changing.

And it can’t come soon enough. It will be too late for Magellan, but it’s not too late for us.

Daylight Saving Time and pop culture

A couple of years back, I published what I thought was a pretty complete guide to all of the videos and memes about Daylight Saving Time.

Well, the creators of the world keep creating.

But it’s not just kids goofing around with meme-makers. Questions about DST are creeping into all parts of our culture, including this gem from the Cartoon Network:

If kids grow up knowing from cartoons that changing the clocks around is a “completely pointless practice” then I know that it’s just a matter of time before we fix it, sort of like gay marriage and gun laws.

But for this year, we are stuck with it. (Blame Trump, really.)

Well, be sure to check out that original collection, but here are some new additions that are worthy of a look or a share here in the 100th year of DST in the United States. Enjoy!

Dst-tweet-boss

 

Dst-facebook

 

Dst-arizona-toast

 

Dst-time-travel

 

Dst-cat

 

  Dst-devices

 

Dst-why-the-hell

Fall Back to the Future – DST FAQ for the Easy Change in 2017

With the fall-back weekend here, this blog is getting lots of activity and I’m getting lots of requests for interviews, along with e-mails from fellow #LockTheClock citizens, etc.

To make it easy for everyone, here’s a quick FAQ:

I hate changing the clocks twice per year, what can I do?

Given the current situation in Washington, I don’t think there’s much we can do there.

But we can work at the state level. I recommend you find your state legislators, and contact them. Do it now, while most of them are not in session. They’ll be happy to hear from you. Then show them this page, and recommend that they try to pass a resolution.

I have an idea that will fix everything! Will you take my idea and run with it?

No. 

Sorry, but I get lots of emails from people who think they are the first person in the world to come up with the idea that we just move the clocks 30 minutes, or whatever. This is a complex problem, and there are no simple solutions.

Also, I come from the world of startups. What I’ve learned is that ideas are easy, doing the work to get an idea out there in the world is hard. This is a hard problem that will take years to fix.

I saw a funny meme once about DST. Have you seen it?

Probably. Either for the fall, or the spring.

My friend in Europe said they changed their clocks a couple of weeks ago. Why are we behind?

It will make you cynical, but the reason is The Swamp. Lobbyists from the candy industry gave a basket of candy to members of congress, and they extended DST until after Halloween for the safety of the children (and so they would have more time for trick-or-treating.) 

Fall-back-meme

Can’t I sign a petition or something?

You can. At last check there were 62 different petitions just on change.org. You could also just scream into a pillow. That one might make you feel better.

Look, change is hard, as they say. It’s coming, but it’s going to take a while. So:

It may take time and hard work, but anything worthwhile does.

2017 Guide for Legislators about Daylight Saving Time

As of this morning there are now about 24 states that are considering some modification to Daylight Saving Time.

Given that two (Arizona and Hawaii) don’t participate in the clock-changing madness twice a year, that means half the states that have legislation brewing to ditch it.

That’s the good news, and it is indeed great news.

The bad news is that every single one of those bills is doomed. Every one.

I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is. (Here’s a post on the legislative tracking site, BillTrack50, about why.)

In short, no state can act on its own. The federal government controls the time, and the controlling law is that we have uniform time zones. If one state does its own thing, the time zones are no longer uniform.

Sunrise-dst

What Can Be Done?

Luckily, there is something that legislators can do! It’s actually easier than passing a bill, it’s passing a resolution. We’ve got model resolution language right here. Or you can look at the version that passed in California.

While typically resolutions don’t do much, this one will because it will give a chance for your state to join together with California and all the other states who will be passing this resolution.

Then, as the leader of this movement, I’ll make sure that all those resolutions get delivered to Washington in a way that will make it hard for the people that matter in this to ignore.

So don’t lose heart that a bill won’t work, you’ve got another tool in the toolbox!

Background

The rest of this post is an updated version of this post, updated with the latest research.

History

Rich and complicated history. Enacted first by Germany during World War One. Adopted by Great Britain and then the U.S. shortly after.

Since 1966 controlled by federal government. Only changes allowed by the Department of Transportation have been to increase uniformity and to lengthen DST portion of the year.

Legislative Background

Many states have attempted to alter their own time zone, but the efforts typically get derailed when they learn of the control by the federal government.

Why is this effort different?

We are not asking for a law to be passed, simply a resolution. There are no binding commitments, no un-funded mandates, and no attempt to challenge the federal authority.

The resolution (full text here) simply states that it is the sentiment of that legislative body that all of the U.S. move to permanent Daylight Saving Time. Some states may want to remain in permanent standard time, and they can request that in the text of their own resolution.

Objection: “In our state the resolution is typically used just to honor citizens, etc.”

Nearly every state is like that, but that’s OK. This is an unusual problem, so it requires an unusual solution, and there are plenty of times resolutions have been used to send a message to a targeted audience. In this case the audience is the Federal Department of Transportation.

Will I face political trouble if I introduce/support this?

All of the polls (here’s one) show at least a two-to-one preference for a stop to the clock changing.

When a lawmaker in Arizona proposed that his state — one of only two that were grandfathered into the 1966 law and don’t have to change twice per year — begin changing with the rest of the country, he was so flooded with negative comments that he immediately and publicly withdrew his proposal.

Though not organized on this issue, traditional TV broadcasters have been against permanent DST because they want people to stop playing outside in the early evening and go home to watch television.

Is there any partisan angle?

No! 

The resolution that passed in California was sponsored by a Republican, but it passed both chambers controlled by the Democratic Party nearly unanimously.

If you are looking for a partisan angle, Republicans can say that they are trying to reduce government intrusion into private lives. Democrats can say that it will help the environment.

What is the science behind supporting this resolution?

Recommendation

This resolution has zero fiscal implication, wide popular support and no complicated legal consequences.

With so little risk and so high of a possible reward, I recommend that you introduce or support this resolution as soon as possible.

Great DST Progress, But How To Coach Friends?

I just looked around, and can say these seven things very clearly:

  1. I have been blogging about Daylight Saving Time for more than two years, and am now pretty much the leading voice on this admittedly very niche issue.
  2. In October of 2014 when I did a piece for CNN, I was seen of something of an oddity.
  3. In the years since, I’ve seen a ton of research come out about how bad the clock changing is.
  4. I’ve also seen a lot more bills proposed around the country. (All but one died, see item 6, below, on that.)
  5. There’s also been a noticeable shift in public opinion, based on Fall Back memes, Spring Forward memes, and just the media coverage in general.  
  6. One state (a big one) had a Republican sponsor pass a resolution that I promoted in a very Democratic legislature, showing how bipartisan this issue is.
  7. Now I’m seeing a bunch more state legislators trying to get something done. I’ll list some of them below, but it’s very encouraging.

The problem I have is this: Legislators keep trying to do a thing that I totally support in the underlying spirit, but that I’m quite certain is doomed to failure. That leaves me with two questions:

  1. How do I tell people that I support them, but that they should try something different?
  2. How do I get the word out to legislators before they introduce a (doomed) bill that there’s a better way?

I really need help on both those points. If you have suggestions, please contact me.

DST-sun-setting

Is the sun setting on Daylight Saving Time clock changing? These Canada Geese think so!

 

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve seen in terms of bills being introduced for the 2017 legislative session:

  • Wyoming. From the one story about this bill, it’s clear that the main sponsor, Rep. Dan Laursen, agrees with the overwhelming majority of Americans that the time we are in doesn’t matter as much as it’s important to stop changing the clocks twice per year. He apparently first proposed that Wyoming stay in Standard Time all year long, but ran into a buzz saw of opposition. Where year-round Standard Time might be good for some states (like Nevada), for Wyoming year-round DST seems to be best, and will certainly have the least opposition.
  • New Jersey. This one is kind of inspired, tragic, and wonderful all at once. The sponsor, Shirley Turner, is proposing a resolution calling for extending Daylight Saving Time by a week or two in the fall, making sure that it comes after the election, and not before. The fact that the time change came just before the last election was hard to miss this year. Her resolution says that in more dignified tones. It’s a wonderful resolution, avoiding the trap of thinking a bill or law that applies only to New Jersey would do any good. But it’s tragic — I think — because it just takes something terrible (the time change) and nudges it forward a small bit rather than  just eliminating it. Still, good for Sen. Turner for proposing something, rather than just doing nothing. And good for her for proposing a resolution that can get passed without much opposition.
     
  • Missouri. The Show Me state has a track record of trying to do something about DST. This bill modifies the tactic I’ve seen from Rep. Mike Kelley before of saying that Missouri will only go to permanent DST if two adjacent states also pass a law saying that they will also go to permanent DST. Similar bills have failed in the past, but maybe this year? The problem, as always, is that even a group of three states will almost certainly not be allowed to switch by the federal government. 
  • Texas. This bill is like so many other doomed bills that have gone before. It will fail, unfortunately, and even if it did pass, the Feds won’t let one state act alone under the Uniform Time Act. Hey, Sen. Menendez, I’m happy to jump on a call with you to help talk about what can work!
  • Connecticut. (No bill filed yet, but news here.) This is the first time I’ve seen any action from the Nutmeg state, so welcome to the fight, Kurt Vail! As you’ve already seen, this is a great way to get press and get your constituents talking. If one report is true, even you don’t think you’ll be able to get your bill out of committee. You are probably right. But there is a DST resolution you can get passed that will help a great deal. If California can pass it, you can, too! If I can help, just contact me.

A few other states have some early indication of action, including a reprise of past failed efforts in New Mexico and Massachusetts.

In Utah, where bills have failed for years, one state representative is proposing an official statewide vote that would allow people in Utah to voice an opinion. Sounds great! Go, Norm Thurston, go!

Good News on DST

Overall, this may seem like a lot of bad news, but really just the fact that there’s so much news is good news. There’s also been more research that I’ll be updating soon, and a LOT more press coverage, some good and some stinky, but all interesting. I’ll be covering it all.

In short, the momentum is swinging in the direction of fixing the killing aspects of the time change. With a bit more effort, I know we’ll get there.

Fixing DST Just Took A Huge Step, Even If The Media Missed It

Look, I was a reporter for a long time, I get it. It’s hard to do a story substantially different than what everyone else is doing.

So let me make it really easy for everyone:

The cause of fixing Daylight Saving Time clock changing just took a ginormous step forward with the passage of a resolution in California calling for an end to changing the clocks twice per year. The California resolution is based on the model DST resolution I first published in February of 2015. 

If you look at the coverage of the work of the state legislature, the resolution passing may seem like something of a footnote to the news that a bill failed.

But the bill, as readers of this site know, was doomed long, long ago. That it died last week is not news. It was dead before it was introduced, it’s just that the people who saw the body moving around thought that it had a chance at life. It never did. 

The big news is that the resolution passed when the bill failed.

Now typically a resolution has no power, it’s just an honorary thing. That’s what makes it powerful! We now have proof of what I’ve been advocating for a long time on this blog: Legislators are going to have a tough time passing a bill that will probably violate Federal Law, but they’ll have no problem voting for a resolution because they think it will have no power.

But this resolution is special. It has a hidden superpower. This resolution is The Little Train That Could.

Just look at the votes this resolution got from the very handy Bill Track 50.

DST-vote-history

It was essentially unanimous in every single vote. Here is an issue that nearly everyone agrees on, regardless of party. Any legislator who has ever asked constituents about it will tell you that it is a huge issue that brings up great passions.

There was only one vote against the resolution in the California Senate from a guy named Jim Nielsen, who is the senator from the agricultural community of Gerber, in the north-central part of the state. Lots of agriculture there, and good for Nielsen for standing up for the farmers, even if he may be a bit off on the facts.

“Our crops have gotten accustomed to that. They’ve in fact been bred to deal with that longer harvest season,” Nielsen said while arguing against the bill. “Don’t fix something that’s not broken.”

He said that in his arguments against the bill, and his side won the day and they did kill that doomed bill.

Crops, meanwhile, may have been bred for a longer season, but DST doesn’t have anything to do with seasons, only with the hours in a given day.

But, while Nielsen’s arguments against the bill may have worked on the bill, they didn’t carry over to the resolution. There were 17 “no” votes on the bill, but only one “no” vote on the resolution, from Nielsen.

(Sen. Nielsen, if you are reading this… Most people think that DST was put in place to help the farmers, but that’s never been true. In the excellent book, Seize The Daylight, the author, David Prerau, dug up the history that farmers were against the change when DST was first proposed, but the big business interests in Boston claimed that the farmers liked it. I see here that you come from agriculture, so you know better than others that real farmers work from before sunrise until after sunset, no matter what the clock says. I understand your desire to represent agriculture, but you’ll do it best by helping the sons and daughters of farmers to have more daylight after school to be able to help out on the family farm while there’s still some daylight.)

(Oh, one other thing, Sen. Nielsen… DST is — in fact — “broken.” It was started by the Germans during WWI and it’s bad for kids, victims of crime, people with bad hearts, productivity, the environment… the list goes on and on. DST is broken, indeed.)

 

What’s Next for the DST Resolution?

So, now that this historic resolution has passed in California, what happens next?

Well, the only official thing that happens is that this resolution will get sent to Congress and the President.

Unfortunately, getting Congress to do anything right now is pretty much impossible.

So, I will personally make sure that the other state legislatures are aware of this.

But to win this fight, I may need some help.

  • If you are a citizen concerned about this, contact your local legislators and let them know that if they want to pass a resolution that can really help fix things — a resolution that already passed in California with huge bipartisan support — they can do that.
  • If you are a teacher, consider doing a unit on DST, and deliver the results of your students’ research and this model resolution to your legislature if you visit the state capitol, or if you have a legislator visit your class.
  • If you are a journalist, consider doing a story about this movement. Your readers care about this issue, and are interested in real solutions.

The legislators can write the resolution however they want, but they are certainly welcome to copy the model DST resolution from this site, or the California resolution, or they can start from scratch. As long as the intent of the resolution is that the legislature and the state express a desire to end DST clock-changing, it will do the trick. If you think the people of your state for one reason or another want standard time year-round, you are welcome to advocate for that, but for nearly every state you’ll find that year round Daylight Saving Time will always be the most popular. Looking at the maps as much as I have, I really think only Michigan could potentially make the case that they’d be better off staying in Standard Time, which would essentially mean they’d join the same time zone as Wisconsin when the country switches to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

The only thing that I think is off about the California proposal is that it lacks an instruction to send the approved copy to the other states who have yet to pass such a resolution. Right now that’s all of them, except for Arizona and Hawaii, which are grandfathered in to staying on the same time year-round. But as I said, I’ll be doing all I can to make sure the other states all know about this resolution.

 

Change is hard. It takes a time and work, but thanks to Representative Jay Obernolte, the Assembly and Senate of California, it will be just a bit easier to push for change that can make a difference for the entire country.

Is this the beginning of the end for DST clock-changing?

The California legislature took a huge step toward fixing Daylight Saving Time Monday, and nobody really understood it.

Well, with the exception of readers of this blog.

A committee of the California Senate heard two proposals related to DST. Both passed, but only one of the proposals got any press.

That one is a bill, a well-meaning bill I’ve written about before. It passed out of the Senate committee, but from there it heads to another committee, and from there maybe to another committee and maybe to the floor of the Senate, where it will need two-thirds to pass. If it gets that, it will need to do the whole thing again in the California Assembly and then it will go to a vote of the people.

There’s almost no chance that will happen because of the business interests who want to keep more daylight in the summer evenings.

And, even if all that did happen and the voters of California passed it, there’s a non-trivial chance that the Federal DoT would overrule the will of the people and not allow the change because it takes away from the uniformity called for in the Uniform Time Act of 1967.

That’s why the bill from Kansen Chu is doomed.

The good news, and the news that’s so misunderstood because it is, admittedly, more complex, is that a joint resolution from Jay Obernolte also passed the same Senate committee.

This is the resolution that was already approved by a committee in the Assembly (that’s what California calls the lower body, what most states call the House) and by a vote of the full Assembly. It then went on to the Senate committee, where it passed unanimously on Monday. The bill from Sen. Chu had some “no” votes; it still passed but the fact that it had “no” votes is a sign of the problems it will face down the road.

Obernolte’s resolution, however passed unanimously, and has sailed through every vote it’s faced.

And the interesting thing is that the Senate committee did not decide to send it to yet another committee, it decided to send it to the floor of the Senate for a final vote.

Resolutions, you see, are the voice of the legislature, and so they do not require a vote from Governor Jerry Brown.

So this resolution that passed the committee Monday, a version of the one first introduced on this site, is one vote away from passage.

Now, it would be easy to say that this resolution won’t go anywhere even if it does pass, but I think this one will be different.

Why?

California is California. It’s the largest state in the union and people pay attention. Similar efforts to this have been attempted in smaller states, and didn’t get much traction. I think part of the reason is that smaller states didn’t want to appear… well… weird. This is a new idea, a new strategy, a new way of thinking. For a state like Arkansas or Missouri to be the leader, well, it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to be on the tip edge of the sword. 

Now a state legislator in any of the other states can stand up and say that he or she wants to do something to stick it to the feds, protect the health of the people of the state, and do it in a way that’s consistent with what other, larger, states are doing.

Also, because California is California, the Federal DoT may pay a little more attention when this falls into their laps.

So join me in congratulating Assemblyman Jay Obernolte on getting this resolution thisclose to victory. If and when that victory comes we’ll be that much closer to fixing this dumb DST clock-changing once and for all.

An Open Letter to Kansen Chu — Re: Daylight Saving Time

An open letter to Kansen Chu, member of the California Assembly.

Dear Kansen,

(I hope you don’t mind me calling you Kansen. As you are an engineer, so I’m assuming like other engineers you don’t stand on formality, and besides, “Dear Assemblymember” just sounds odd for people who don’t hang around Sacramento.)

First: Let me say congratulations. On behalf of those of us who’ve been laboring on this issue for a while, it’s wonderful to see the concerns about Daylight Saving Time get the kind of attention that only comes when an elected official from our most populous state gets involved. It’s fantastic.

And by the way, I don’t mean that flippantly. This is an issue that a huge swath of the population cares deeply about, and yet nobody seems to talk about it in any meaningful way. You are, and it’s just fantastic. (Twelve other states are looking into it so far this year, which is also great.)

Second: Be sure to thank your dentist. I read that he’s the one that suggested that you champion this topic. 

Third: Your dentist is right on the facts: Switching in and out of DST is not healthy. I’ve got a list of most of the research about DST here.

Fourth: I hope you don’t mind me numbering all the points. My hunch is that as an engineer, you’ll appreciate it, just as all your constituents will appreciate the time not jumping around so they can enjoy the moon behind the clouds on a spring evening without losing an hour of sleep.

Daylight saving time night time

Fifth: You told a reporter that your interpretation of the federal law is that California could switch to Standard Time, and not go to year-round DST. That is certainly a reasonable interpretation, but it may not be right. Nobody has ever formally asked the Feds to move into permanent DST since the passage of The Uniform Time Act of 1966. All the approved changes have been to make time more uniform across the four time zones.

I understand why you have the interpretation that you do, and you may be right, but it is far from settled. I wrote about this a year before you knew it was even an issue.

The legality seems to be tied up not in which time zone you are in, but if that time zone is uniform with the rest of the country. California essentially being in its own time zone decreases uniformity, so will probably be denied, even if the people vote for it.

Sixth: Even if it wasn’t doomed by the Feds, your effort in its current form will be doomed by big business.

In short, all the money in this fight does not want Standard Time year round. The farmers did not want DST after World War II, it was the golf industry, and that industry will certainly fight you on this. Also, the lawn care industry, those who sell patio furniture, the recreation industry, major league and little league baseball — all of these and plenty more have a lot of money tied up in longer summer evenings.

Don’t be surprised if some of your old “friends” from the restaurant industry contact you soon and urge you to drop this, as earlier darkness means fewer trips out to eat.

Pretty much the only industry I’ve been able to find that supports year-round Standard Time is broadcast TV, which wants it dark early so people will go inside and watch television.

Seventh: Do NOT take points five and six as evidence that I’m against you. I’m not. I’m totally in favor of doing anything that shakes things up. If you can get this passed, I’ll be cheering more loudly than anyone. I want this, it’s just that the path of getting a proposal passed by both houses of the legislature, signed by the governor and then approved in a statewide ballot is a long and difficult path, especially given that you’ll have business and the federal government against you.

Eighth: If you call the federal DoT, and if the people there tell you what they’ve told other state legislators I’ve talked to, you’ll maybe be sad. Or if all the business interests tell you that you need to back off, maybe you’ll be sad. Or maybe if people start calling your proposal “depressing,” you will be depressed yourself.

Do not lose heart!!! You are fighting the good fight.

Ninth and final point (with its own numbered list): There is a way that you can turn this into a winning issue for you, for California, and for the whole country. Here’s how:

  1. Instead of a bill, with it’s long odds of success, offer instead a resolution. Now, you know better than most that resolutions don’t typically do very much, but this one would be different.
  2. This resolution would simply say that it is the wish of California that it would move to year-round DST, and that you want all other states to join you.
  3. That resolution would go to the other states, and the Feds.
  4. If two-thirds of the states pass the same resolution, the Feds could solve this with one ruling of the DoT, no Act of Congress needed because this will make the country more uniform under the current law.
  5. If you don’t like the wording of that resolution, which is a bit hyperbolic, I’ll write you a new one that’s more toned down, or you can write one yourself.

In short, Kansen, and to paraphrase Casablanca… Welcome to the fight. With you on board, I know our side will win!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fix DST permanently: A step-by-step plan for teachers

If you are a teacher, this post is for you.

The prerequisites for this plan of action are:

  1. An understanding of the basic concepts of Daylight Saving Time.
  2. Students who are willing to engage with local elected officials for non-partisan education.

The steps to participation are as follows:

  1. As appropriate for your students’ grade level, lecture about the history of Daylight Saving Time or ask the students to research the history and write a research report. Here’s a good start of research resources about DST.
  2. Once the research is done, gauge interest in trying to make a difference in ending DST clock-changing.
  3. If interest is sufficient, have the students research the plan presented on this site.
  4. If as a class, or as an independent project, students want to be part of the plan to change the law they should find their local state legislators from the state senate as well as the house or whatever the other body is known as. (Or in Nebraska, only the senators.) This tool usually works.
  5. The students should then ask for a meeting, either in the office of the legislator or ask that person or those people to come to the class to discuss the issue. (This is a guide put together by the Humane Society, but is applicable for most issues.)
  6. Introduce them to the concept, and then the model language, and tell them about the progress being made in other states using this language.
  7. Be sure to follow-up and thank the official.
  8. The best time to talk to a legislator is in the fall, before the legislative session begins.
  9. All state capitols have arrangements for tours for students during the legislative session. Be sure students know their legislators to arrange a brief meeting while visiting the statehouse.
  10. If your legislator introduces the model legislation, or some version of it, be sure to contact any and all local media to let them know about your support for the position and your role in sparking the discussion.
  11. Once the resolution is passed be sure to ask the legislator if you can be present for any bill-signing ceremony.

And of course, if you have any success at all, be sure to let us know via the contact info on this page and we’ll be sure to highlight your success on this blog.

It’s real now. Model Resolution now in play in one state. Is your state next?

Update in October, 2020: Welcome to this page. For some reason the search engines are sending a lot of traffic to this page, even though it’s more than five years old. For much more up-to-date info, check the Current DST Legislation page. And please be in touch!

 

A number of states have forward-thinking legislators negotiating the waters in their own states, but there’s now one state who’s taken the model resolution I wrote, and introduced it into the legislative process.

First alphabetically, and now first to introduce, is Alabama. Here’s a link to the resolution from the state site. Here’s a link to the summary on this resolution from a bill-tracking service. (Full disclosure, I’m a shareholder in that service.)

Here’s some coverage of that Resolution.

 

This is huge news.

Remember, this whole thing started as me just complaining about the difficulty of adjusting twice per year, and now it is officially a legislative initiative that could quickly spread to all of the 48 states that are currently stuck in the clock-changing rut.

Thanks to Sen. Glover for having the courage to go first.

If you, too, hate changing clocks twice per year and want to get involved, just find your representatives to the state legislature, and urge them to pass this resolution. Be sure to tell them it’s a resolution — not a law — which makes it much easier to get approved.

State lawmakers really do enjoy hearing from constituents, and with the time change this weekend and the deadly Monday Morning coming up, this is the perfect time to get involved.

If you happen to be reading this on Friday morning, March 6, tune in to HuffPo Live at about 10:15 a.m. EST, and be sure to join the conversation. The more we can show how much the people are tired of the clock-changing, the easier it will be to convince legislators to take action.

If you can’t tune in, go take this one-question poll from AccuWeather. When I took it public sentiment was more than two-to-one against the clock changing.

Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 6.41.08 AM

See you on HuffPo Live!

It’s time to get rid of Daylight Saving Time Clock-Changing

With the Spring Forward change coming up soon, the attention to Daylight Saving Time is ratcheting up.

But it seems a bit different this year.

Typically the attention from the media and most people is to just get the instructions, and move on.

Then in recent years there’s been more a sense of bemusement about the time change. People that talk about sticking with one time zone year-round get a nice pat on the head and a bit of a laugh.

There’s no question that Daylight Saving Time is comedy gold. Historians think Ben Franklin was joking when he suggested moving the clocks around to increase productivity. 

Then this video that appeared last year was a huge hit, and justifiably so:

 

But I’ve noticed a subtle shift in the tone of the coverage and the sentiment this year. What is it?

Well, first there’s the coverage of the legal efforts to end the clock-changing.

At least a 14 states by my count have some kind of legislation in some level of discussion this year. The coverage is more sober than it’s been in the past. Before a typical story would begin with some trivial anecdote. Now the stories are more like this one from Alaska.

JUNEAU — A state Senate committee has advanced a bill that would exempt Alaska from daylight saving time, a measure that its sponsor said would be good for the health of state residents.

No bad puns. No winking references. Just a straight-up news story. 

And it’s correct, too. From heart attacks and traffic accidents to problems for diabetics and those with sleep issues, there’s no question that changing the clocks is a huge public health concern.

And with the serious nature of the proposal comes resistance that’s just as serious. A different Alaskan legislator is now fighting the proposed change.

Of course, the biggest opponent to change is the United States Government, specifically the Department of Transporation.

The feds try to make it clear that they control the time zones, not the states. One state learned this very clearly. Other states will find out their efforts on this are doomed soon enough.

But the progress in the coverage reminds me of the great quote:

First they ignore you.

Then they laugh at you.

Then they fight you.

Then you win.

 

First they ignore you, then they laught at you, then they fight you, then you win.

 

(It turns out that Gandhi probably never said that, but it’s still a great quote.)

How will we win?

It’s hard to say for sure. Congress certainly doesn’t seem to hold any hope.

The state legislation percolating around the country has some promise, but each one is probably doomed by the Federal Department of Transportation.

In my home state of Colorado, a band of citizens has gotten approval to collect signatures and get a measure on the ballot for people to vote on.

I support this measure, even though I worry that all that work may be for nothing if the Feds reject this the same way they reject every other state-based effort. Supporters of that movement think that it will be analogous to the marijuana initiative: Not consistent with what the feds want, but allowed to exist anyway. Maybe they are right.

Perhaps this is Stockholm Syndrome or something, but I actually think the Feds have a point in wanting uniformity of time zones in the whole country. I don’t want people in New York to have to figure out if Denver is two or three hours different depending on the time of year. The disruption to transportation is real.

But the clock-changing must end.

That’s why I’m so pleased that some legislators are now working to pass this Resolution to end Daylight Saving Clock Changing.

It’s deceptively simple, even more simple than my original plan of trying to get states to pass a law. With this plan legislatures simply voice an opinion, an opinion supported by the wide majority of their constituents.

And if enough states pass this resolution it may act as just the bump that the Department of Transportation needs to recognize that interstate commerce is best served by keeping the states uniform AND by not allowing a time change that dramatically increases traffic accidents.

The data from the New England Journal of Medicine about increased heart attacks is compelling, but I can see bureaucrats from the Department of Transportation ignoring that. “Not my department.”

But traffic accidents? Doesn’t the DoT have a mission to ensure that we have a safe transportation system? Yes! 

And does the science show irrefutably that the clock change creates an unsafe transportation system?

Yes again. The science about that last point is crystal clear, thanks to another Coloradan, a PhD candidate named Austin C. Smith, who used “regression discontinuity design” and other impressive-sounding techniques to prove that the sleep disruption and the sudden change of the sunrise and sunset relative to rush-hour simply kills people every year.

Let’s put it in very clear terms:

This Monday — right after the “spring forward” change — U.S. citizens will die.

They will die in traffic accidents to that their families will seem tragic. And those accidents will in fact be tragic because they are preventable.

There is no energy savings. There is no help to farmers. There is no safety issue for school children.

There is no sane reason to keep switching into and out of time zones other than the fact that we started doing it during World War I and somehow never really stopped.

There’s no humor in that. None.

And that is why they aren’t laughing at this idea any more. They may fight it, but that’s better than laughing at it, and certainly better than ignoring it.

The fight means we’ve almost won. It seems far off, but in the sweep of history it’s very near indeed. The Department of Transportation controls this, and could do something, but won’t until they hear clearly from the states that it’s time.

It is time.

What now?

If you agree, and haven’t yet taken any action, I suggest the following:

Good: Like, tweet, share this post

Better: Write your own post, update, status or whatever and share it with your legislators and other influencers.

Best: Contact your state legislator and urge them to introduce this Resolution.

I’ve gotten emails from legislators in four states now. This thing is happening, and you can be a part of this victory if you take some action right now.