Daylight Saving Time will last four weeks longer under terms of a massive energy bill that got final congressional approval yesterday and is headed to the White House.
The controversial provision, included in the package OK’d by the Senate yesterday, would take effect in 2007.
Americans would get an extra hour of sunlight, beginning on the second Sunday in March – when we’d “spring forward” three weeks earlier than we do now.
We wouldn’t “fall back” until the first Sunday in November – adding a week at that end.
Advocates say the extension would save electricity by providing more daylight in evening hours so that consumers wouldn’t have to turn on lights.
They cite studies indicating that one extra sunlit hour would save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
Plus, trick-or-treaters would get an extra hour of daylight on Halloween.
“The beauty of daylight savings time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a sponsor of the bill.
Yet the idea has been controversial ever since Ben Franklin first proposed it-and it still is.
Parent-teacher associations oppose the extension since it would leave some kids traveling to school in the dark of March and November mornings.
The airline industry has also fought it, saying the change would throw international flight schedules for U.S. carriers out of sync with those of much of the world.
The industry successfully lobbied with Congress to scale back the original plan – which was to expand savings time by two months – after citing research showing it would also cost U.S. airlines $147 million.
The change would also mean that Canada, which currently has the same daylight calendar as the United States, would be out of sync with us during the four affected weeks.
Of course, those computers that automatically account for changes in daylight saving would have to be adjusted. And, finally, approval of the extension is not certain – because the Bush administration, too, has opposed it.
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More light
How new legislation will change affect Daylight Saving Time.
NOW: We turn clocks one hour forward on the first Sunday in April and turn it back on the last Sunday in October
2007: We will “spring forward” on the second Sunday in March and “fall back” on the first Sunday in November