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(NEXSTAR) – With a little less than three months until our clocks are set to “fall back” to standard time, the pressure to pass a bill that could prevent that is on, including from the Oval Office.
President Trump again threw his support behind making daylight saving time permanent in the U.S. on Tuesday, saying that “the vast Majority of Americans have asked to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but no Administration has been able to get it done, until now.”
The clocks have not yet been locked on year-round daylight saving time, but the U.S. is the closest to making the move as it has been in years. Last month, the Sunshine Protection Act was passed by the House. It now awaits a vote in the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. Efforts by the Senate to fast-track its version of the bill in October were thwarted.
Trump called the end of the seasonal time change “an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind,” further calling the clock changes “foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly.”
Costs, in a sense, were part of the reason why the U.S. previously observed year-round daylight saving time. More specifically, the goal was to reduce the country’s energy consumption, with winter daylight in particular being refocused to the evening hours.
Multiple studies, however, found that energy savings related to daylight saving time are relatively minimal.
During the 1970s attempt at year-round daylight saving time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that energy savings were between 0.4% and 1.5%. Another study by the Energy Department found that extending daylight saving time led to a 0.03% drop in energy consumption in 2007, according to a Congressional report. That same report highlighted additional studies that found little to no benefit for energy consumption through daylight saving time, and, in a study based in Indiana, that there was an associated increase in electricity demand.
That same 2000s report from the DOT determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the extension of daylight saving time “had any measurable impact on motor gasoline consumption for passenger vehicles or traffic volume in 2007.”
Other reports, including analyses published by the Independent Institute in 2008 and the American Enterprise Institute in 2013, argue that twice-a-year changing of the clocks cost the U.S. between $1.7 billion and $2 billion annually. Both argue that this is fueled by the time Americans spend physically changing their clocks, a practice that you may partake in less now than you did in the previous decade.
There may be other costs associated with seasonal time change, especially to your health, experts argue. It can throw off your sleep schedule (and that of your children and pets) for a week after clocks spring forward or fall back, for example. Health experts, though, generally call for permanent standard time, largely because of the increased amount of sunlight we would get in the mornings.
Locking the clocks on either side could impact how thousands practice their religion and have “considerable implications” on your future flights, at least temporarily.
It’s difficult to say when, if ever, the Senate will pick up the Sunshine Protection Act.
Congress is also considering two bills in the House that would give states the option to observe year-round daylight saving time, a bill to make half-daylight saving time permanent, and a bill to make standard time permanent, with exceptions.
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