Why did Daylight Savings time shift from late April to early March?

[Little-Acorn]

For as long as I can remember, Daylight Savings Time started on the last Sunday in April, and ended on the last Sunday in October. A bike ride I used to participate in (Ironman Century) in Minneapolis, usually ran on the last Sunday in April, with the first heat starting at 7:00 AM, and getting up that extra hour early was especially excruciating. Similarly, Halloween usually occurred right after the time change, making trick-or-treating that much "earlier".

The reasons were pretty clear - especially the reasons for having the change forward, exactly six months after the change back.

DST was an effort to make the sun come up closer to the same time every morning, whether winter or summer. Of course, it can never be exactly the same time. But this helped it be a little less wildly eccentric.

But now we have changed it for some reason. There are now EIGHT months between the change forward (today) and the change back (Mid-November).

What is the rationale, exactly, for having them eight months apart rather than six? I'm pretty baffled at this.

Some people tell me it's for energy saving. But others say that that's a phantom - people in most of the country who have an extra hour between getting home from work, and sundown, tend to run their air conditioners MORE at home for that hour in the summer; while the air condititoners at work don't get reduced for that extra hour. And people who will now get up an hour early, in early March instead of waiting till late April, will be turning on their lights more in that early time while fixing breakfast, getting the kids ready for school etc.

Also, some say that fewer pedestrians get run over in the evening after DST changes in March... but doesn't that simply mean that more will get run over in the morning?

I even heard one rumor (probably not true) that barbecue manufacturers got together to lobby Congress to change the clocks-forward change to March, so that people would have more barbecueing time in the evening and so they would buy more grills, sooner.

I liked it a lot better when we turned the clocks forward in late April, than doing it now in early March. Why did we change? I can't find ANY upside to this new way.

And no, I'd rather not move to Arizona or Indiana where they have never done DST at all.

[Gaffer]

I hope they get rid of it entirely. It's a waste of time (pun intended). And I read somewhere that a congressman had submitted a bill to remove DST. Hope he succeeds.

[fj1200]

I think it was billed as an energy saver when energy costs spiked a few years back.

[tailfins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_Act_of_2005


The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub.L. 109-58) is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems, changed US energy policy by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types.


The bill amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 by changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time, beginning in 2007. Clocks were set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March (March 11, 2007) instead of on the first Sunday of April (April 1, 2007). Clocks were set back one hour on the first Sunday in November (November 4, 2007), rather than on the last Sunday of October (October 28, 2007).

Lobbyists for this provision included the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and the National Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Lobbyists against this provision included the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the National Parent-Teacher Association, the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium, the Edison Electric Institute, and the Air Transport Association.[11] This section of the act is controversial; some have questioned whether daylight saving results in net energy savings.[12]


In reply to

And no, I'd rather not move to Arizona or Indiana where they have never done DST at all.

Indiana imposed DST in 2006

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/daylight1.html


The Dawning of DST in Indiana

Until April 2005, when Indiana passed a law agreeing to observe daylight saving time, the Hoosier state had its own unique and complex time system. Not only is the state split between two time zones, but until recently, only some parts of the state observed daylight saving time while the majority did not.

Under the old system, 77 of the state's 92 counties were in the Eastern Time Zone but did not change to daylight time in April. Instead they remained on standard time all year. That is, except for two counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., which did use daylight time.

But the counties in the northwest corner of the state (near Chicago) and the southwestern tip (near Evansville), which are in the Central Time Zone, used both standard and daylight time.

The battle between the old system and DST was contentious and hard-won—bills proposing DST had failed more than two dozen times until finally squeaking through the state legislature in April 2005. As of April 2, 2006, the entire state of Indiana joined 47 other states in observing Daylight Saving Time. But it wasn't quite as simple and straightforward as all that—telling time in Indiana remains something of a bewildering experience: eighteen counties now observed Central Daylight Time and the remaining 74 counties of Indiana observe Eastern Daylight Time.

Read more: Daylight Saving Time — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/daylight1.html#ixzz1ouXCvE1R