PD Editorial: Let's make daylight saving time a year-round thing

Now that we’re finally recovered from losing an hour of sleep, California should jump on the permanent daylight saving time bandwagon. America’s 100-year, on-and-off experiment with changing time needs to come to an end.

Monday marks the 100th anniversary of United States’ first enactment of daylight saving time. The impetus then was conserving fuel during World War I. It proved unpopular though, and Congress repealed it after the war, overriding a presidential veto to do so.

When World War II broke out, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the country onto “War Time,” which was year-round daylight saving time. Again, it ended with the war.

In 1966, at the urging of the transportation industry, Congress adopted daylight saving time in roughly the form we have it today. Over the years, lawmakers tweaked the dates, and in the mid-70s they tried year-round daylight saving time for a year. So last week we sprung forward.

Let’s dispel a couple of popular misconceptions. The Congressional Research Service surveyed the literature a few years ago and found that daylight saving time doesn’t save that much energy. Electricity savings over an entire year would be about 0.03 percent of total U.S. consumption.

It also is not safer - or more dangerous - including on the day after the change. Accidents don’t increase or decrease in any statistically significant way. The most that can be said is that daylight saving time makes everyone cranky for a week by disrupting sleep cycles and life patterns.

If we’re being honest, then, the reason to stop changing the clock is simply because the current system is annoying. Let’s either do away with it or make it permanent. Our preference would be the latter so we would have an extra hour of light in the evening when most can enjoy it.

During the shortest days of the year, coming out of work in the dark is depressing. Yes, there’s something to be said for having more light in the morning. But more people are awake, active and on the road in the early evening. In Santa Rosa, in December, the sun sets before?5 p.m. Year-round daylight saving time would push that back to nearly 6 p.m. at the price of a sunrise after 8 a.m.

Come spring and fall, the evening sun shines late, affording more time for people to recreate, get yard work done and enjoy being outdoors before bed.

The Florida Legislature this month passed a bill to move permanently onto daylight saving time. California has considered similar bills over the years, most recently AB 807 introduced by South Bay Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San Jose. Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and at least a half-dozen other states have taken up the issue as well.

The hitch is that under federal law, states may choose not to participate in daylight saving time, but they can’t go on it permanently. Arizona, Hawaii and several territories have opted out. Before Florida and any other state can opt in year-round, Congress must act.

California lawmakers should follow Florida’s lead and tell members of Congress that it’s time to stop making us spring forward or fall back. They’re officially on the clock.