The AM Forum

If I read this correctly, the Senate's version of pending energy legislation lacks a provision to extend DST by two months, as proposed in the House version.

The claimed energy saving under that proposal is bogus; based on figures released by its own proponents, calculations show it would save all of one twentieth of one percent of the total energy consumed in the country per day.

Is such a minuscule energy saving worth the effect this would have on the daily routine of millions of people, forcing everyone to go to bed an hour earlier and rise an hour earlier during the months of March and November? What about kids having to wait for the school bus in pitch dark those months?  Do we really want DST before the first day of spring?  At Thanksgiving?

Those of us who have to work for a living but who enjoy nighttime operation on the lower frequency bands would be deprived of an hour a day of prime operating time during the evening hours during the months of November and March, if this proposal is adopted.  Some of the best propagation conditions of the year on 160, 80 and 40 occur during those months.

If you think expanding DST would be a bad idea, please contact your two senators and your representative in the US House ASAP.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8344954/

They haven't got any good energy saving ideas. And since none of them really w-o-r-k, it really does not matter who's life gets disrupted. Just as long as it LOOKS like they are doing something. They tried this crapola back when our frends the Saudis turned off the tap in the early 70s. Why shoud it work now? Just a evasive manuver.

This whole thing is driven by government employees who want to get in a full round of gold before sunset.  Foolish all the way around.  DST saves nothing.  It reminds me of Sheila Jackson-Lee's view on Gitmo.  

Those of you might remember DST came about during the Nixon Admistration passed by Demo congress.  Real bi-partisan

That's a bit "wide of the mark" (political commentary aside).

On March 19, 1918 the U.S. Congress established several time zones (which were already in use by railroads and most cities since 1883) and made daylight saving time official (which went into effect on March 31) for the remainder of World War I. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose earlier and went to bed earlier than in modern times) that the law was later repealed.

Daylight saving time was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources, this time in order to fight World War II. This remained in effect until the war began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945.

From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law about daylight saving time. States and localities were free to observe daylight saving time or not. This resulted in a patchwork where some areas observed DST and adjacent areas did not, and it was not unheard of to have to reset one's clock several times during a relatively short trip (e.g., bus drivers operating between Moundsville, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio had to reset their watches seven times over 35 miles).

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated that daylight saving time begin nationwide on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. Any state that wanted to be exempt from daylight saving time could do so by passing a state law, provided that it exempt the entire state. The law was amended in 1972 to permit states that straddle a time zone boundary to exempt the entire area of the state lying in one time zone. The law was amended again in 1986 to begin daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April, to take effect the following year.

In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving was begun earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January in the former year and the last Sunday in February in the latter. According to a report from CNN, the U.S. Congress may again pass a bill extending daylight saving time by two months, beginning on the first Sunday in March and ending on the last Sunday in November. The purpose of this bill is to address increasing energy usage, allowing the nation to conserve more energy than it would otherwise.

I still say DST if for federal employees to get in an 18 hole golf game instead of a 9 home game.  

And so far the proposed savings haven't materialized anywhere I have seen.  Just think how much energy we could save if the federal government went to bed one hour earlier?

Heck I was doin fine when it shut down all together.  They couldn't let that go long or folks might start thinking about how little they were missed.  :badgrin:

Larry