Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? After Clock Switch, NC Lawmakers File Bill to Make It Permanent

RALEIGH – While it’s been standard practice for as long as anyone can remember, you’ll find no shortage of complaints about the arbitrary nature and pointless disruptions brought on by the obligatory, twice a year switching of the clocks. Love it or hate it; old saws about ‘Daylight Savings’ are as abundant as our struggles to make sense of this perfunctory pain in the you-know-what.

That pain could be blunted, or even eliminated entirely, if state lawmakers are successful in making the most recent turning back of the clocks permanent. Well, as long as Congress agrees.

House Bill 307, sponsored by Rep. Jason Saine (R-Lincoln) and other House Republicans, is titled An Act to Designate the Time Zone of North Carolina and to Adopt Day Light Saving Time Year Round if Authorized by Congress.

This would mean the current time — the one we arrived at by skipping our clocks ahead by one hour — would stay year round. Of course, the involvement of Congress here is necessary to achieve a uniform turn away from this antiquated ritual.

John Trump at the Carolina Journal on the state and federal efforts to synchronize our watches one final time:

“Biannual clock shifts are an antiquated practice that was introduced during the World Wars to help manage energy consumption,” Saine said. 

“Today, in our modern economy, rather than saving energy, time shifts have been linked to numerous negative emotional and health effects including seasonal depression, cardiac issues, and stroke.”

A bipartisan move in the U.S. Senate, introduced March 9, would eliminate the time shifts, too. The “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021” would make year-round DST the law, Bloomberg reports. […]

Fifteen states — Arkansas, Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — have passed laws, resolutions, or voter initiatives for permanent DST, a news release says. 

Individual states aren’t permitted to change their DST schedules without federal approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is why congressional approval is needed. […]”

So as you do a double take at the clock in surprise, imagine never having to go through another week of ‘Spring Forward’ adjustment again?

Read more on the effort, and the set straight in your mind the real history of Daylight Saving switches, here.

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