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Last week, “U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent across the country.” Senate.gov
Read the bill here. Senate.gov
The right supports the bill, arguing that we should adopt permanent Daylight time.
Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) write, “Daylight Saving Time was a wartime effort to conserve fuel for candles and gas lamps during World War I, more than 100 years ago. It started in Germany but quickly spread across many parts of the world. In the 1970s, Congress lengthened Daylight Saving Time in order to save energy during the oil embargo from the Middle East…
“Even though we are now energy independent, are not in a world war, and do not have to read our smartphones by candlelight, we are still living under the relic of biannual clock changing… We’ve all felt that lingering tired and unease from switching the clock. Let’s eliminate this stressor for our families and #LocktheClock.”
Sen. James Lankford and Sen. Marco Rubio, Fox News
“[DST] disrupts coordination, which is the whole point of keeping time. Most of the world does not observe DST. And countries that do adopt it do so on different days. This means for a few weeks each year there is total time chaos. People on the East Coast can't remember if Europe is five or six hours ahead anymore. It wreaks havoc on the airline industry, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in non-pandemic times. JP Morgan estimates consumer spending drops 3.5% every year we return to Standard Time. There are also more heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, and depression…
“[In the post-pandemic economy] we may go through an economic transformation just as profound as the industrial revolution that created the need for our current time conventions. Odds are more people will be working from home, at least part of the week. This makes coordination even more valuable as more people are in remote locations… The legend is that DST change began to accommodate farmers when we had a more agrarian economy. But that is a myth. In fact, farmers don't like DST either. It messes with their livestock, who don't understand why crazy humans change their schedules one day for no particular reason.”
Allison Schrager, Business Insider
“How we became stuck with this system is still something of a mystery, though it’s reported that Ben Franklin suggested it in a letter to the editor all the way back in 1784… A more solidly established timeline suggests that Daylight Savings was intended to reduce electricity consumption. That excuse is also up for debate…
“Back in 2008, the Department of Energy released a study claiming that electricity demand went down by 5% because of this system because people weren’t turning on their lights until later in the evening. But a parallel study done the same year by the National Bureau of Economic Research claimed the opposite was true. While people were using less electricity on lighting, they were using more for heating and cooling, negating any potential benefits. In other words, nobody really seems to know for sure…
“Given all of the Sturm und Drang going on inside the Beltway these days, wouldn’t it be nice to come up with one concrete thing that Congress could work on in a bipartisan fashion and actually do something useful for the country? Getting rid of these biannual clock changes might not seem like a major legislative accomplishment, but at least it would be something.”
Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
“If you don’t think this proposal is a big deal, you’ve probably never had to set up a mathematical equation to figure out whether it’s an appropriate time to call a pal who lives in another time zone in a state that doesn’t observe Daylight Savings. Or maybe you’ve never been a working-out woman who just wants to go for a nice after-work run without the dangers of the dark… Research has shown permanent Daylight Savings Time comes with quite a few potential benefits, such as fewer car accidents and robberies, and less obesity. It also helps people snap out of seasonal depression… In a year that’s snatched so much from Americans, enacting permanent Daylight Savings Time is a little thing that could add lots of joy.”
Kylee Zempel, The Federalist
The left generally argues against twice-yearly clock changes but is divided as to whether Daylight or Standard time should be adopted.
The left generally argues against twice-yearly clock changes but is divided as to whether Daylight or Standard time should be adopted.
“There’s no good biological reason to change the time twice a year, but most health experts support ending daylight saving time, not making it permanent. Studies show that people get better sleep during standard time, because the bright morning light and the reduced evening light make falling asleep easier. In the winter, a shift to daylight saving time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8 a.m. in many places, which could make it difficult for people who need to get to early-morning jobs and classes. Some studies show that the sleep loss induced by daylight saving time is associated with an increase in heart attacks and strokes.”
Olga Khazan, The Atlantic
“We most effectively treat depression and seasonal affective disorder with exposure to morning sunlight. If you are depressed in the winter, that’s natural, because there’s less daylight available. It would be made worse by permanent daylight saving time, because you’d be depriving yourself of even more morning daylight… I personally support ideas that will give workers more control over their day. Whenever you feel the best coming in to work, you should. That’s the correct solution.”
Jay Pea, Slate
Meanwhile, proponents of Daylight time note that “though we have all heard the argument about kids having to walk to school in the dark if we don’t move the clocks back for winter, it’s not really an issue today. Most young schoolchildren don’t walk to school by themselves anymore, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School, because it’s not perceived to be safe no matter how light it is outside. And older kids generally have later schedules, so not only would they not be affected by the later sunrise, they’d have more daylight for after-school programs and sports…
“We think it makes more sense to have more daylight at the end of the day when more people are awake and active. Besides, it would be less disruptive, as we already spend two-thirds of the year on daylight saving time. But the most important thing is for us to stop messing with the clocks twice a year. Time’s up for this silly tradition.”
Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times
Dated but relevant: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that most schools start too early, contributing to poor health in adolescents. Earlier school start times are linked to depression and anxiety in teenagers, as well as chronic sleep deprivation. Early start times also disadvantage young students, lowering their academic performance. It is absurd to blame DST on a problem created by the American school system. If more schools took the American Academy of Pediatrics’ advice and refused to start class before 8:30 a.m., DST would pose no impediment to schoolchildren… Don’t fault DST for giving us eight months of sunshine. Embrace it.”
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate
Finally, some argue that “our current split system, for all its frustrations, remains the best answer… The country tried permanent summer time before and did not like it. It was adopted as an energy-saving measure during World War I and World War II. Each time, it was quickly abandoned after the war. In 1974, Congress moved the United States onto summer time for two years to conserve oil. Clocks were moved forward on Jan. 7, 1974; people started their days in darkness and an angry backlash began. In the fall, standard time was restored…
“[While] a growing body of research shows that messing with the natural rhythm of daily life takes a significant toll on human health… we make all sorts of choices that aren’t optimal for our health… A 2019 AP poll found that less than a third of Americans want to keep the current system, but there’s no consensus about what would be better. That’s the nub: We have a choice of three imperfect alternatives. And eight months of daylight saving time, for all its flaws, delivers the best available compromise: sunshine on summer evenings, and on winter mornings.”
Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times
A libertarian's take
“We should scrap our current system of time zones and daylight savings in favor of worldwide adoption of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), also known as Greenwich Mean Time. This would mean that everyone’s watches around the world would be set at exactly the same time. The only difference they would notice, depending on where they are located, would be where the sun is in the sky at a particular hour… What would be different under UTC is the time on your watch. In New York, midday would no longer be 12:00 p.m., but rather 5:00 p.m. (17:00 UTC)…
“The adoption of UTC would not mean that people would be going to work in darkness in certain parts of the world. Business hours would be adjusted to UTC. For example, while businesses in London would still open at 9:00 a.m. and close at 5:00 p.m., in New York, under UTC, they would open in the morning at 2:00 p.m. and close eight hours later at 10:00 p.m… Virtually all modern technologies, including the Internet and GPS, have spontaneously adopted UTC. It’s time for the rest of us to do the same..”
Steve H. Hanke and Christopher Arena, Cato Institute
