Battle over daylight saving time as 45 US states demand ban on changing of clocks – seven have used loophole to ditch it

AMERICANS across the country will soon get an extra hour in bed as daylight saving time ends.

The clocks are set to fall back in less than six weeks but the annual change hasn’t been welcomed by everyone.

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Daylight saving time, or DST, begins on the second Sunday in March each year when clocks jump ahead by one hour – causing Americans to lose 60 minutes of sleep.

Clocks then fall back, or go backward by an hour, on the first Sunday in November.

The twice-yearly changing of the clocks leads to more daylight in the evenings in spring and summer and more rays of sunshine in the morning hours in fall and winter.

This year, daylight saving time runs until 2 am on November 3.

In less than 10 years, 45 states have tried to ban the changing of the clocks and at least 650 bills and resolutions have sought to address it, per the Congressional Research Service.

However, only Congress can change the length of DST observance.

Politicians in states including Florida and Tennessee have passed bills on the state level calling for daylight saving to be year-round, but these have no effect because Congress hasn’t changed the law.

The bill in Florida aiming to institute year-round DST recognizes this and says it will do so “if the United States Congress amends 15 U.S.C. s. 260a to authorize states to observe daylight saving time year-round.”

Despite a lack of movement from the federal government as of late, a loophole allows states to exempt themselves from following daylight saving and instead observe permanent standard time – which two states and five US territories have done.

The Uniform Time Act was amended in 1972 to allow states split between time zones to exempt the whole state or part of the state that falls within a different time zone.

High-profile lawmakers continue to try to spearhead efforts to convince President Joe Biden to change the law and make daylight saving time permanent.

The US Senate tried to address the issue by unanimously passing the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022 but the House has yet to vote on it.

WAR-TIME TACTIC

Daylight saving can be traced back to 1918 and was implemented in line with attempts to conserve energy .

It was temporarily rolled out by President Roosevelt in 1942 and was known as War Time. War Time ended in 1945.

Year-round daylight saving was also implemented between January 1974 and April 1975 during the OPEC oil embargo.

The vast majority of states – except most of Arizona and Hawaii – observe daylight saving time.

American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are among the US territories that are an anomaly.

Arizona used to observe daylight saving until 1968.

Now most of the state remains on Mountain Standard Time.

The reason most of the states don’t follow daylight saving time was linked to the climate.

An Arizona Republic newspaper editorial complained the sun would stay out until 9 pm.

And it shared grievances that pastimes, such as going to the drive-by cinema, would have to wait until late at night.

States that do not observe daylight saving time

The history of daylight saving time can be traced back to 1918. However, some states and territories do not observe the practice, including:

• Most of Arizona
• Hawaii
• American Samoa
• Guam
• The Northern Mariana Islands
• Puerto Rico
• The US Virgin Islands

“It’s still hot as blazes,” one line of the editorial said, as reported by local ABC affiliate KNXV.

Only the Navajo Nation of Arizona observes daylight saving time in the state.

The reasons daylight saving time isn’t observed in Hawaii is linked to its geography and climate, per the Fox affiliate KHON.

Officials worked out that the changing of clocks wouldn’t yield dramatic results when it came to energy conservation.

STOP THE CLOCK

The idea of daylight saving has sparked debate within American society.

A YouGov poll from October 2023 revealed 68% of people surveyed wanted to abandon clock changes.

But, there wasn’t a clear consensus on the path forward.

A third supported ideas to create a permanent daylight saving time, while 23% backed a form of permanent standard time.

More than a quarter of those surveyed were undecided.

And, 9% simply did not have a preference.

CLOCK-CHANGING BACKLASH

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called for permanent standard time to be adopted.

The organization published a paper in January 2024 titled, Permanent Standard Time is the optimal choice for health and safety.

There have been efforts to make daylight saving time permanent on the federal level but lawmakers’ efforts have come up short.

Florida senator Marco Rubio re-introduced the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2023 but it did not become law.

“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid,” he said in a statement .

“Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support.”

Fellow Florida Senator Rick Scott branded the ritual of changing clocks “outdated.”

“Permanent daylight saving means more time in the sunshine and that’s something everybody should support,” he said.

Senator Rand Paul branded Rubio’s proposal as common sense, while Florida congressman Vern Buchanan claimed there are “enormous” benefits to a permanent rollout of daylight saving.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966

Daylight saving time was addressed in the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which laid out the curent system of uniform DST.

The law aimed to address a lack of nationwide consistency in the observance and length of DST.

The act mandated that states start and end DST on federally mandated dates.

It also allowed states to opt out of participating in daylight saving time if the state falls in multiple time zones.

The most recent change to DST came via the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which changed the dates to spring forward and fall back.