By Carol Fisher Linn
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends November 2; either you love it, or you hate it.
The reasoning behind daylight saving time was to make the most of natural daylight, giving an extra hour of daylight in summer evenings and an extra hour in winter mornings. That sounds perfect for a tourist town like Ellicottville, doesn’t it? Yet, controversy endures over its existence.
DST started in 1918 after President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act into law. The DST law was amended with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by LBJ.
Here’s this: In the United States, daylight saving time happens twice annually: On the second Sunday of March, move forward by one hour, and the first Sunday of November, go back by one. “Spring forward, fall back.” About 63% of Americans would prefer to get rid of daylight saving time altogether, according to surveys from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
The history of saving daylight is convoluted: DST can be traced back to 1916, when Germany enacted it during World War I to save energy. The United States followed in 1918, but the wartime measure was repealed seven months later. Daylight saving was re-established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 during World War II and ended in 1945. However, messaging was so bad in the U.S. one state didn’t know what the other was doing. Everyone was switching helter-skelter. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which made the biannual clock switching universal. Here’s where the high heat of Arizona (except for Navaho lands – Tuba City is even divided in half – different time zones across the street – AP News March 2024), and the closeness to the equator of Hawaii, the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands encouraged them to opt out.
Today, there are twenty states that, in the last several years, have either enacted legislation or passed resolutions to provide for year-round DST if Congress were to allow for the switch and, in some cases, if nearby states also enacted the same legislation. But Federal law does not allow states to adopt daylight saving time on its own.
The policy, regulated by the Department of Transportation, aims to save energy, reduce traffic fatalities, and reduce crime. DST was kept after World War II because Americans were believed to use less energy by extending summer daylight into the evening. However, a 2008 Department of Energy study found that DST reduces annual energy use by just 0.03 percent, and another study by the University of California-Santa Barbara found DST might even increase energy consumption.
“There’s overwhelming consensus right now, and it’s evident by recent Gallup polls, that the American citizens and residents of our district don’t like the changes twice a year,” NY Sen. Griffo told WBNGTV in Binghamton, NY: “Many people come to me and say we want whatever makes it lighter longer, and that’s Daylight Saving Time, so that’s why we’ve proposed making it permanent.”The recent Gallup poll Griffo cited found that 54% of Americans want to stop springing forward and falling back every year. That’s a dramatic shift from Gallup’s last poll on the subject, which found 73% supported Daylight Saving Time in 1999. But remember, Congress would have to give the nod to states before they could enact an regulation regarding DST.
The pros and cons are never-ending. Check out the 2008 U.S. Department of Energy report to Congress saying the savings are significant. Proponents say, however, that they amount to a mere 0.5% each day of Extended time. They also talk about the decrease of crime yet stores and tourism sectors say the extra light is good for business. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (in 2020) said the U. S. needs to get rid of seasonal changes, preferable to Standard time because it “aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.” Daylight saving time, the academy said, results in more darkness in the morning and more light at night, which disrupts the body’s natural rhythm. Let’s hope your circadian rhythms don’t get disrupted because of this dilemma. After all, you are gaining back one hour in November!