Why, why, why?

[Rhinox]

So here we are again. Robbed of another hour of sleep, our internal clocks, our schedules, our lives upended by an archaic holdover from agrarian days.
Is there anyone even doing anything to free the states still suffering from Daylight Savings?

I know that here in Kansas it's been a topic of a lot of conversation, but despite saying they want to get rid of it, no one in the legislature has actually proposed anything.
How is it going in your state? Has there been anything on a federal level looking to cease the practice?

And I don't need any smug self superiority from the Arizona people. It's too early for that, I don't care what the clock says.

 

[Patch]

Permanent Daylight Saving Time Bill Just Made Clock Change More Annoying

Before the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act last year, I was resigned to my fate. Now the biannual clock change comes with false hope.

nymag.com

Sadly, last year’s failed sneak attack on clock-switching may have only galvanized the opposition. As the Washington Post reported, it led to more spending on lobbyists by sleep-medicine doctors (a.k.a. Big Sleep) and put resistant lawmakers on notice:

… after senators used a legislative maneuver last year to pass their bill with no debate or committee review — shocking many of their colleagues and the White House — wary congressional staff say they’re on alert to block such an effort this year.

Meanwhile, a review of daylight saving time policies by the Department of Transportation, which implements federal time zone rules, is not expected to be completed until year’s end; some undecided lawmakers said they planned to wait for that before making a decision on the Sunshine Protection Act.

This year, the Sunshine Protection Act won’t dodge regular procedure, and the bill’s prospects of even making it out of committee seem dim. Per the Post:

The political logjam might be best encapsulated by Washington state, whose representatives control the two committees that oversee daylight saving time policy: Sen. Maria Cantwell (D), who leads the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R), who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While the Washington state legislature and governor have pushed for permanent daylight saving time, both Cantwell and McMorris Rodgers have declined to take a position, and their staffs were similarly noncommittal about whether the committees would bring the bill up for review.

The bill last year was just false hope. To quote a certain writer, it never ends.

 

[Rhinox]

My God, let it end. There's just not enough coffee in the damn world to put up with this logical fallacy any longer.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

an archaic holdover from agrarian days.

It's worse than that. It's a modern thing and farmers didn't want it in the first place.

We do this for no reason at all.

 

[abates]

I forever bear the shame that the whole thing was devised by a New Zealander. Though in the UK, it was heavily pushed by a rich bugger who didn't like that he didn't have enough time to play golf in the evening. Now we may never be rid of it.

 

[DefaultOption]

It's worse than that. It's a modern thing and farmers didn't want it in the first place.

Yup. Farmers used to start work at sunup, it didn't matter what the clock said.

I'm not generally conspiracy-minded, but I think the whole "it's to help the farmers" was disinfo designed to get suburbanites and city folk who didn't know any better on board with the idea.

 

[Ungnome]

I thought it was to give workers more daylight hours to build stuff for the war effort during WWII as well as an ill-conceived idea to reduce energy usage on lighting during the warmer months(turns out power savings of doing it are negligible). The MODERN incarnation in the US is from 1975 with the dates last shifted back in 2007. So nope, has nothing to do with agriculture and everything to do with commerce and manufacturing.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Most of canada is perfectly willing to abandon it... but the US has to do it first.

 

[Anonymous X]

I’d have no problem scrapping daylight savings time, but as long as we had BST (British Summertime, as in GMT+1) all year round instead of regular GMT. I hate it when it gets pitch black dark at 4pm in October…

 

[Pocket]

"Permanent DST" means even more months of having to get up before sunrise; is that really what you want? Meanwhile who cares if the sun goes down before dinner for a few months? It's winter; no one wants to be outside anyway. I'm for permanent standard time.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I would prefer permanent standard time. But Rubio wants permanent DST, and he's the one who introduces this bill every year so that'll probably be what we end up with if this ever happens.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

I don't particularly care which. Just pick one and stick with it already.

 

[Mat-Man]

Split the difference: move the clock forward/backward 30 minutes and call it a day. Or night. Dight?

I work 12 hour graveyard shifts three nights a week in a town 30 minutes west of where I live and I'm either driving into the sunset to work or sunrise from all three days. With the exception of when the days are super short and the sun's gone down hours before I've left for work and doesn't come up until well after I've gotten home, DST or Standard makes little difference to me.

 

[Rhinox]

I really don't care whether we have permanent DST or standard time. I just want to be done with this whole farce. Pick one and let's move on.