28 States Have Bills To End Seasonal Time Changes

In the absence of Federal government action, lawmakers in 28 states have proposed legislation to end seasonal time changes each Fall and Spring. In March, 2022, The U.S. Senate passed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. The bill went nowhere in the House, and has made no apparent progress in the past 20+ months.

Citing research that twice per year clock changes are bad for human health, energy use, and economic productivity, state legislators are trying to pass their own end to clock changes, at the state level. 19 states have actually passed measures to switch to permanent daylight saving time IF Congress changes a federal law to allow it. A 1966 federal law instituting national daylight savings time, allowed states to opt out, but only if they adopted permanent standard time. Hawaii and Arizona are the only states that did so (along with 5 of the US territories). The 19 states are: Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

In addition to the 19 states that want permanent Daylight Saving Time, there are another 9 states that have pending legislation to adopt permanent standard time. The nine are: Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vermont.

More information can be found here.

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David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and Senior Business Development Consultant at Capacity Consulting, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has been co-chair of the ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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