Daylight Savings Time
Am I the only person who reads history?
On 15 DEC 1973 President Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act into law.
This law was intended as a trial period to see how the American Public liked year-round Daylight Savings Time — and also to conserve energy during the on-going oil crisis.
It was, by any metric, a dismal failure. Originally intended to run from 06 JAN 1974 to 07 APR 1975, it enjoyed a 79% approval rate from the American public when it was announced in 1973. By February of 1974 — about a month after it went into effect — the approval rating had collapsed to a whopping 42%.
On 27 OCT 1974 — six months prior to the official end of the trial run — under heavy voter pressure Congress voted to revoke the law.
I bring this up, because Congress is in the middle of voting on The Sunshine Protect Act of 2025 which would make Daylight Savings Time the permanent(ish) choice of time for the US.
I am a fervent proponent of no longer switching the damn clocks back-and-forth twice a year. Trust me, I hate switching clocks back-and-forth … but of the two choices of time (Standard Time versus Daylight Savings Time) we’ve tried one of them before and it was a complete fiasco. Maybe we ought to … I don’t know … try the other one this time?
Plus — Am I the only one who reads (or has any apparent concept of) history? No? Just me?
Well, then.
Ian
Only the government would buy into the notion that cutting off the top of a blanket and sewing it onto the bottom will somehow make it longer.
Yes, I agree. DST is a failure and has always been a failure, but unfortunately most people can't remember what they had for breakfast, so remembering something from decades ago? Well it never happened....