By Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. - We have again survived the "fall back" from Daylight Saving Time to Eastern Standard Time. The official end came at 2 a.m. Sunday, although most Americans likely "fell back" before they went to bed Saturday night or when they got up on Sunday morning.
Only Arizona and small portions of western Indiana are exempt from this annual ritual, but those who love the extra hours of natural light can look forward to 2007 when a bigger and better DST will be extended 21 days - starting on March 11 and ending on Nov. 4, 2007.
The hours of daylight have been diminishing since June, and daylight has become a "precious commodity" in the parlance of Daylight Saving Time experts. Indeed, daylight is so precious in these days of $3 gasoline and triple digit residential power bills, that the U.S. Congress enacted an extension of DST beginning in March of 2007. Instead of "springing forward" on the first Sunday in April, we will do so on the second Sunday in March.
Next year, we will "fall back" on the usual last Sunday in October a for the last time. Beginning in 2007, we will fall back on the first Sunday in November, to allow more daylight for Halloween trick-or-treaters and fans driving home from late afternoon football games and other events.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who sponsored the Daylight Saving Time extension amendment that was included in the recently enacted Energy Policy Act of 2005, represents the southwestern corner of the Great Lake State and grew up on the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan.
Because Michigan is on the far western edge of the Eastern Time zone, Upton is keenly aware that DST is an economic boon to his state's important tourism industry.
Allowing residents and tourists alike to enjoy outdoor activities until 10 p.m. EDT in the summer, not only saves energy but also rings cash registers.
According to Upton, the extra daylight beginning in March and November 2007 will save an additional 100,000 barrels of oil a day. By adding 21 days to Daylight Saving Time, the U.S. could realize a three-week saving of $125 million in fuel costs alone as people stay outdoors, using less electric lighting and gasoline.
Saving energy and spurring tourism is a great idea, but for now, as early darkness descends on the Northern Hemisphere, we need to fall back to standard time because the sun is moving further south each day. The sun is rising later and setting earlier and we need to adjust.
This falling back and springing forward is not peculiar to the United States. On the last Sunday in October, people all over the world fell back. Fidel Castro and his Cuban comrades all fell back when we did. Russia and the other former members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Australia, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas - and even the Turks and Caicos Islands all fell back at the same time.
Scores of other countries, including Iraq, Syria and New Zealand have already fallen back to standard time, most on Oct. 1. Tonga and Brazil will fall back on the first Sunday in November, and the United States will join them in doing so in 2007.
Oddly enough, Japan, the "Land of the Rising Sun" does not observe Daylight Saving Time. During the American Occupation in the post-war 1940s, we imposed DST on the Japanese - again to conserve energy - but the Japanese abolished it at their first opportunity, in 1952.
But the politics of extending Daylight Saving Time is fraught with peril! Farmers, parents of young children, and those religions that attach a great significance to sunset and sunrise, are not pleased when their routines are upset.
However you feel about Daylight Saving Time, just be glad you do not live in the state of Indiana.
Under a recently enacted state law, each county is allowed to decide whether they want to be in the Central Standard Time zone, Eastern Standard Time zone, Central Daylight Saving Time zone, or Eastern Daylight Saving Time zone.
This system is called "Hoosier Time" and it is a recipe for confused chickens, missed appointments, and bewildered boilermakers.