by Curt Kovener
I have never been a fan of Daylight Saving Time. I wrote in the distant past in opposition to the semi annual “springing forward and falling back” of DST calling it akin to an STD.
For Hoosier history students, it was Gov. Mitch Daniels (now president of Purdue University) who, back in 2006, used up most of his political capital and a great deal of Hoosier good will to narrowly push DST through the General Assembly.
Narrowly is accurate. It passed by one vote in the Indiana House. It was a first term southwest Republican legislator who Daniels strong-armed to vote for DST. The measure passed and that fall the freshman legislator felt the ire of his constituents as he lost his re-election bid and has never been heard from again.
It has been said Native Americans observed regarding the time change, “Leave it to the white man to think he can cut off the end of a blanket, sew it to the other end, and have a longer blanket.”
But, Daniels proffered, by taking away an hour of daylight before the work day started and adding it to the end of the work day, it would save on energy by keeping people outside and the lights off longer.
However a University of California study of the Indiana economy found that switching to DST actually cost Hoosier households an extra $8.6 million a year in electricity bills. It found that the reduced cost of lighting in the afternoons was more than offset by higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.
And a study from Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute found that, although DST did not create an economic bonanza in Indiana, it did result in a “small statistically significant” increase in monthly employment levels. I don’t know what constitutes “small but significant” levels, but I suspect they have become smaller and less significant in the intervening years of e-commerce expansion.
And medical professionals found, Daylight Saving Time can screw up your health. Doctors say the hourly back and forth and the resulting body clock confusion can be linked to a number of health risks, including heart attacks, obesity, cancer and even car accidents.
Granted now with smart clocks, smart TVs, and cell phones automatically moving time in the spring and fall, the only thing left for me to program is the coffee maker and the clock in my 20-year old SUV.
So, DST is bad for energy use and the environment. Bad for your health. So-so for commerce. Turning ordinarily placid people like me into seething psychopaths for a few days twice a year.
So why, more than a week after we have all “sprang forward” am I writing about DST? Congress is debating doing away with the falling and springing and making DST year round. Let us hope the do-nothing congress can get this one right with passage.
Many of you may have gotten an opinion poll from your congressman asking for your thoughts on year-round DST.
Currently 63 percent of us approve of ending the twice-yearly clock shifting. But is that enough to convince legislators? Could there be hope from Washington after all? Will there be a rare burst of intelligence from the nation’s capitol?
We’re talking about time so we will have to wait and see.