Delaware this week became the latest state in which lawmakers proposed a striking idea to avoid the annual, often-hated practice of switching clocks back and forth because of Daylight Saving Time: Simply move to another time zone.

But there’s a catch, New Jersey.

Under the plan, Delaware’s three closest neighbors — Maryland, Pennsylvania, and, yes, New Jersey — would also have to agree to shift one time zone to the east, effectively making Daylight Saving Time permanent in each place. The goal is to avoid confusion and frustration for commuters who live in one of those states and work in another. The plan would then need final approval from the federal government.

So would the Garden State think of joining?

Well, don’t count it out.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney told NJ Advance Media on Friday that if Delaware reached out about the proposal, he wouldn’t say no, at not least right away.

“I’d be happy to talk to them and look at it,” said Sweeney, D-Gloucester, New Jersey’s top state lawmaker and the person who decides which bills come up for a vote in the upper house of the state Legislature. “I really don’t see the real benefit of Daylight Savings. But I never thought about it.”

“Hey, I never say no to any ideas until I really research them,” he added.

Daylight Saving Time — when you move your clock ahead an hour in March and move it back in November — has been around for more than a century, though it certainly has enemies. Many opponents find it annoying. Studies have shown it can also hurt your health.

But getting rid of it is tricky.

States can opt out of Daylight Saving Time. Arizona and Hawaii are the only ones to do so.

States can’t, however, drop standard time and institute Daylight Saving Time year-round. And if you simply stick with standard time, that means you’d lose an extra hour of sunlight in the summer.

A slew of states have moved to establish permanent Daylight Saving Time in recent years, including California, Florida, and Oregon. Washington’s legislature is likely to pass such a measure soon.

But that would require Congress to pass legislation allowing it.

Delaware’s bill aims to get around that by moving the state from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Time Zone, which is one hour ahead. Eastern parts of Canada and places in the Caribbean — including U.S. territories Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands — use that zone.

That would allow Delaware to technically drop Daylight Saving Time but still keep that extra hour of sun all year round.

A number of New England states — including Connecticut and Massachusetts — have proposed similar plans in recent years. The Connecticut proposal would hinge on Massachusetts and Rhode Island adopting it, too.

Delaware state Sen. Bryan Townsend, a Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bipartisan bill in his state, said in a statement recently that these “disruptive time changes" are "part of an outdated system whose usefulness has long since passed.”

Delaware Senate President Pro Tempore David McBride, another Democrat pushing the measure, called it “social experiment that has produced more harm than good and is now on the verge of becoming a public-health issue.”

But McBride said he’s aware people in the Mid-Atlantic region often live in one state and work in another. That’s why Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania would have to sign on, he said.

“No one wants to lose an hour between home and the office," McBride said. "But if we all agree, we’ll never have to change our clocks again.”

If all four states adopt the law, the U.S. Department of Transportation — which oversees time zones — would then have to approve the plan.

(Of course, one issue is the switch would still likely cause confusion for New Jerseyans who travel to New York — or even Connecticut — for work each day.)

Sweeney, the New Jersey Senate president, admitted that “changing the clocks is not that hard.”

“But is there really any benefit?” he asked.

Many people believe Daylight Saving Time has to do with farming. That’s a myth.

Germany was the first to institute it in 1916, to save coal during World War I. Great Britain later follow suit, and so did the U.S. It became permanent in America in 1966, hoping more daylight would help save energy.

For New Jersey to join Delaware’s effort, both the state Senate and Assembly would have to pass a bill and Gov. Phil Murphy would have to sign it into law.

At least one top lawmaker, Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said he didn’t have an opinion on the issue and that he’d have to talk to “a lot of people” to see whether the idea is worth it.

“I’ve got a few other things in New Jersey on the frontburner that I think I’m gonna be concentrated on,” Bramnick told NJ Advance Media. “The time zone is not going to make a difference if there’s no one living here because of taxes.”

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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