The Alaska Senate passed a bill to kill Daylight Saving Time Wednesday, voting 16-4 to send the measure to the House.
The bill passed shortly after noon Alaska Daylight Time. The bill, Senate Bill 6, also asks the U.S. Transportation Dept. to include at least some of Alaska in the Pacific Time Zone.
The sponsor of the measure, Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Eagle River, said the state has the power to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, but shifting time zones is solely the prerogative of the federal government.
It should come as a surprise to no one that this had bipartisan support.
I have NEVER understood why we have Daylight Savings Time in Alaska. It's dark all of the time for most of the winter, so starting the day a little later or earlier seems ridiculous.
It makes no real difference except to make people late for appointments, and irritate the crap out of Alaskans who have to walk around their house changing clocks.
So I embrace this change and hope that it passes the House so we can finally just live our lives without the twice a year panic of suddenly waking up and realizing that we don't know what time it is.
There are a couple of other states that have eliminated Daylight Savings. It makes most sense for Alaska because of its very northern location and because it is also west of most of the Lower 48. I wouldn't mess with the time zone because that is part of an international system. It's not something over which a state can get antsy over "states' rights-y." Unless, of course, there are Alaskans who don't want to participate in the rest of the world either, maybe a branch of the AIP.
ReplyDeleteWe find Daylight Savings a nuisance, for the more complicated clock part in the fall and for the loss of an hour's sleep in the spring. At least, here in Michigan we can really appreciate that extra hour in the afternoon and the rising sun is less likely to wake us retirees up on spring mornings. But getting to all of the clocks and watches is something else! When I was working I resolved it quite easily by putting a post-it on my wall clock ("+ one hour") and then took it off in the fall.
Beaglemom
East Coaster here: While I am undecided about DST, I do oppose the several years ago ill advised extension of DST to start in early March and to continue into November. The old changeover points were better.
ReplyDeleteI HATE the extension of DST. It's really hard on all of us living in the northern third of the country. I can live with DST with the shorter period, and I actually like the longer evenings in the summer.
DeleteIn reference to not understanding why Alaska would have DST, one reason I disagree with doing away with it is that it is already difficult to do work or business with the rest of the country since we are so far west that our time zone puts us four hours out of sync with the east coast. No longer can we simply add a hour to know what time it is, for example, in Seattle. My mother lives part time in Hawaii and they are sometimes an hour behind and sometimes two hours behind us. We'll now be that way with most of the rest of the country.
DeleteI agree. I just wish the entire US would do away with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's outlived it's time (pun intended !)
ReplyDeleteGood on 6:13 AM! This could be the thing that tips me over the edge in deciding to retire to Alaska. I detest DST.
ReplyDeleteNot so fast. Oregon just submitted same bill in their Senate.
DeleteI live in Juneau and it's a big deal for us down here. We look forward to "springing ahead" one hour as we get more evening light. With this new legislation our sun will set at 9 p.m. which will affect our commerce and tourism. It's no big deal for anyone above latitude 58 because you folks get a lot of sun all summer. It is a BIG deal.
ReplyDeleteThat's because you are too far east to be in the same GST -9 timezone as is South-central. Southeast AK should really be in the GST -8 timezone as is Seattle and as all of Southeast used to be.
DeleteWestern Alaska, starting at Unalaska should be on the same timezone as Hawaii, GST -10 because of their western longitude.
The worst thing AK ever did was consolidate two timezones into one timezone, and then consolidate the entire state into one timezone, as our state spans such a longitudinal range that we should have 4 or even 5 timezones.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/01/us/alaska-s-four-time-zones-now-two.html
Lucky you.
ReplyDeleteI'm in California and I doubt anyone (but me) would support getting rid of DST. I've always considered it stupid, a waste of time, irritating and saving NOTHING.
So you get some extra daylight after work. But you have to turn your lights on in the morning to dress, eat breakfast, etc. It saves nothing.
I think Congress stuck the nail in when they extended it by starting it earlier and letting it go later. WTF was up with that?
Sorry, Ben. But these days your idea doesn't flly (a kite) any more.
Another option, at least in the lower 48 states, is to always be on DST. Let's just choose one and stick with it. No more of this spring forward, fall back crap.
ReplyDeleteIf we stuck with the time we are on now it wouldn't be so bad but being 5 hours behind the East Coast will suck. Four hours is hard enough having to get all business calls in by noon.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Indiana where they didn't bother with DST. A few years ago they changed that by allowing individual counties to choose (hooray for local government?).
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to California and actually changed my clocks for the first time I thought it was absolutely idiotic. I go to work at 1am, so it doesn't matter to me whether the sun is up/down/sideways. People in LA are always on the freeways, and stores keep their lights on 24/7. DST is Pointless.
OK, Gryph.............ya cracked me up good with this one.
ReplyDeleteBTW, "know one" needs to be corrected. ;-)
Not my fault.
DeleteI was tired, cause you know...daylight savings time.
Yep, that's the ticket.
Daylight savings time is in the summer. As if the Land of the Midnight Sun needs more daylight then.
ReplyDeleteI'm envious. I wish they would get rid of daylight savings time here. It no longer serves the purpose for which it was designed, so it's time to modernize our time zones and set a final time sequence to be used all year.
ReplyDeleteI do see the problem for SouthEastern AK. They are just in the wrong time zone. Going to Pacific time would alleviate most of their concerns.
Gryph, will this be effective this year, or deferred to 2016?
I would like to see the end of DST nationwide. It is a bad idea and always was. The day is the same length regardless, and people can start conducting their daily business whenever it suits them, whether the clock says this hour or that.
ReplyDeleteHaving this happen on a state-by-state basis would be a serious nuisance, and doing it nationwide would keep us all knowing how many hours away the various states are.
I like the convenience of the entire state being on the same time, but know that this wide an area should really be divided along the meridian lines.
John Oliver said it well in his recent You Tube video.