The problems of year-round DST in Utah

At a legislative committee meeting two weeks ago, one lawmaker called for Utah to observe daylight-saving time throughout the year.  I’ve also seen calls on social media to do the same.  This option was embraced by 18% of those who weighed in on the business.utah.gov/time website.

Those who advocate its year-round observance are evidently unaware of what happened when Utah went on year-round DST beginning Sunday, January 6, 1974.  By the following Friday, a Deseret News headline read, “DST unleashes a storm of controversy.”  The Governor’s office received “numerous calls from people concerned about children walking to school, or waiting for buses in the darkness”  (Deseret News, January 11, 1974, pages A1 & 6A)

School principals and superintendents also received “scores” of calls requesting school start times be delayed until daylight, along with “as many or more calls from citizens asking them to stay with daylight time because any change would upset work schedules.”  Three children were hit by cars in the pre-dawn darkness and an East High School student was raped and robbed on her way to class, all in the first four school days of year-round DST. (Deseret News, January 11, 1974, pages A1 & 6A)

A woman in Layton wrote Governor Rampton: "somebody has got to be joking, a sick joke I must add, about sending these small children to school in the dark to save energy".  (Jan 27, 1974 letter from Wilma J Burton, Layton 84041.  Rampton correspondence files, Utah State Archives.  Series 20904 reel #6 designation box 3 folder 6)

The state school board, as well as the Salt Lake City and Weber local boards, passed resolutions calling for the end of year-round DST for the safety of our school children.   (Rampton correspondence files, Utah State Archives.  Series 20904 reel #6 designation box 3 folder 6; also Wayne Owens papers, University of Utah Library Special Collections, MS 108, Box 34, folder 9)

On January 26, 1974, Governor Rampton wrote US Representative Wayne Owens requesting Congress repeal the year-round DST law. In Representative Owens’ February 4th response, he said his mail "expresses sharp constituent opposition to DST during the winter months."  The lawmaker noted he was "painfully aware of the serious accidents which have occurred in Utah...involving small children traveling to school in the dark morning hours."  Even though he voted for it, Owens made an about-face and said the year-round DST law should be rescinded only a month after it was implemented.  (Wayne Owens papers, University of Utah Library Special Collections, MS 108, Box 34, folder 8)

The legislature, meeting in its budget session, joined the growing chorus calling for an end to winter DST.  The Utah Senate unanimously passed a resolution on January 31, 1974, petitioning Congress for a DST-free Utah from the First Sunday of October to the Last Sunday of March (1974 Utah Senate Journal, p, 237).  The Utah House followed and passed the resolution by a 70-5 vote two days later (1974 Utah House Journal, p. 293). 

Sixty-four percent of Utahns said they opposed year-round DST in a Bardsley poll published in the April 14, 1974 Salt Lake Tribune (p. A7).

 I don’t believe year-round DST is allowed by federal law.  States must either exempt themselves entirely, as Arizona & Hawaii have done, or observe it from mid-March to early November. 

What if you took a trip from Denver to Las Vegas to go home for the holidays?  You’d have to set your clock one hour ahead when you hit the Utah border, then two hours back when you arrive at the Nevada border.

DST on steroids

I don’t know what we’ve been thinking all these years. Daylight-saving time is so wonderful. It’s hard for me to figure out why our civilization didn’t collapse from 1776 to 1918 when we didn’t have it. I think we’ve missed the boat and aren’t using all this "extra daylight" to our advantage. Only an hour of it just isn’t enough. If the average person works from 8:00 to 5:00, they only get about 4½ hours of this magical daylight after work and only at the peak of the summer. How tragic; how morally reprehensible. We all deserve much more daylight that happens when we change our clocks. After all, we all know that clock changing, not nature, miraculously creates daylight. I propose what I’d like to call "supersonic DST on steroids."

What we need to do is set our clocks ahead nine hours. This would create nine hours of after-work daylight in the winter and twelve additional daylight hours in the summer. On the horrific standard time, the sunrises at 7:48 a.m. and sets at 5:02 p.m. on December 21st. On supersonic DST, the sun would rise at 4:48 p.m. and set at 2:02 a.m. On June 21st, the sunrises at 5:56 a.m and sets at 9:02 p.m. DST. With this new improved and fortified DST, the sun would rise at 1:56 p.m. and set at 5:02 a.m.

This is the ultimate daylight-saving proposal. I’m psyched about how many wonderful after-work daylight hours will be used. Think of the endless possibilities. Our society will be so much more productive. Little Leaguers now only have until about 9:30 p.m. to play in the light which they desperately need since there are no lights in any playing fields or parks. With supersonic DST, the leaguers could play, we could work in our yards, and do all kinds of recreational activities until 5:30 a.m. We don’t want trick or treaters to go out in the dark. After all, Halloween is all about daylight. Now trick-or-treaters could go out in the daylight until 2:25 a.m.

Oh, we mustn’t forget outdoor barbeques. I have no idea how to turn on my energy-saving lights in my backyard, so we have to change our clocks so we can have one. We could run even more businesses like drive-in movie theaters into bankruptcy. Any outdoor pageants that don’t start until a ridiculously late hour shouldn’t happen anyway. Oh, and how great it will be to wait until 6:00 a.m. to start the fireworks on the Fourth of July. It’s so neat to have them now at 10:00 rather than 9:00. It makes it nice to return from them so late when you still have to get up early for work the next day.

Who cares if children will have to go to school and even have recess in the dark? That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the incidence of heart attacks and traffic accidents increase when we advance our clocks. Nothing matters except having daylight after work. No one knows how to have fun or do anything unless it’s light outside. Sunsets are devastating. I can’t stand the romantic summer evenings. I’m so glad we never have them in Utah because by the time it gets dark in the summer, it’s time to go to bed. We could worship the sun for many more hours after work.

Some say American society is in decline, all this additional daylight will not only save it, but make it thrive again. Retailers will be ecstatic about all their increased business. So what if we’ll use even more gasoline by driving around for more hours? Who cares how much longer we’ll run our air conditioners in the summer or our heaters in the morning during the winter? We will once again truly find our place in the sun because we have the ultimate daylight-saving time.

While our very bright Congress (no pun intended) is legislating the time, they need to legislate the temperature as well. We need a law to raise the temperature ten degrees in the winter, then lower it by the same in the summer.

The President orders energy standards

President Obama has signed a Presidential Memorandum ordering higher energy efficiency standards on items such as dishwashers, lamps, and microwave ovens. I will write him a letter about how daylight-saving time causes greater energy usage. Here are three studies about this:

1. An April 5, 2007 USA Today article cited Energy Department figures to report a 3% increase in gasoline consumption during the three-week time period in March compared to the previous two years on standard time

2. A study out of Berkeley by Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff concludes that changing to daylight saving time earlier may use more energy because of increased demand when it's dark in the morning. The authors studied an earlier springtime DST change in Australia prior to the 2000 Olympics. They question if this clock change saves energy like it used to because "the widespread adoption of air conditioning has altered intraday patterns of electricity consumption." (see http://www.ucei.berkeley.edu/PDF/csemwp163.pdf)

3. A27 February 2008 Wall Street Journal article cited a UC Santa Barbara study showing residential electricity soared up to four percent in Indiana after DST was imposed on that state in 2007. The reason why was increased air conditioning use in the evening. The study also finds that reduced evening lighting in March is offset by people using their heaters for a longer period of time on cool mornings. The study can be viewed at http://www2.bren.ucsb.edu/~kotchen/links/DSTpaper.pdf

When Congress extended DST in 2005, they ordered an Energy Department study to see if it really saves energy. This report was due in December 2007. Now fourteen months later, it still hasn't been released.

Biking after sunset

After it got dark yesterday, I took my bike on about a three mile ride. It was exhilarating! On the way back, I noticed a ball game was going on in the park with the lights on. I also noticed a backyard party with outdoor flood lights illuminating the event. I thought if the sun had set at 6:12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time instead of 7:12 p.m., people would still be able to enjoy the same events. We don't need government coerced clock-changing to have a great time. The bike ride went very well, even in the dark. It would have been much more desireable to have a 6:23 a.m. sunrise to make it a much less dreary morning. We don't need daylight-saving time, we can manage very well, and even thrive, without it!

A beautiful evening in Phoenix!

This past weekend, my family went to an outdoor restaurant in Phoenix. The temperature that day was near 100°, but when nightfall came around 7:00 p.m., it cooled down a bit to make a picture-perfect evening. A mist maker machine would spray on you, making it very comfortable.

I thought about how these earlier sunsets make for such a better scenario to enjoy evening activities. When we have warm weather in most of Utah, by the time it gets dark it's too late to enjoy evening activities outdoors because you still have to get up early to go to work in the morning. Just another great reason to abolish daylight-saving time.

where's the study?

According to United States Code Title 15 Chapter Subchapter IX § 260a [note from Public Law 109–58—AUG. 8, 2005 Section 110] clearly states:
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once the Department study is complete.

According to my calculations, this report was due in December 2007. To date, the report has not been released.

We all ought to call our Senators and Representatives to ask where the report is. It is long overdue.

DST & a snow storm

It was interesting hearing about all the problems with this morning's snow storm. I noticed the sun didn't come out until 8:40 a.m. I was thinking how many problems with accidents and car slide-offs would have been mitigated if the sun came out at 7:40 a.m. Then more snow would have melted and the roads wouldn't have been so icy during the heaviest part of the morning commute. Just another reason why we ought to remain on standard time.