07/25/2005
For the first time in almost 20 years, Congress is poised to change when Americans observe daylight-saving time. A provision in the fiscal 2006 omnibus energy bill would add four weeks to daylight-saving time, starting the second Sunday of March and ending the first Sunday of November. Currently, daylight-saving time starts the first Sunday of April and ends the last Sunday in October.
Supporters of the provision argue that extending daylight-saving time would reduce energy consumption and save millions of dollars each year. If the bill passes, Congress will give the Energy Department nine months to find out how much energy would be saved before the change is enacted.
Opponents disagree that the change will bring savings. “You cannot add an hour of light to the evening without taking it away from the morning, when people will need to use more electricity,” a New York Times editorial explained.
The Air Transport Association also challenges the proposal, arguing that a change to daylight-saving time would cost the airline industry close to $150 million each year.
“This change will extend the period of time that the United States is ‘out-of-sync’ with the clocks of other key European, Asian and Western European nations and will cause significant disruption to both international and domestic airline schedules, giving foreign carriers yet another competitive advantage over U.S. carriers,” said James May, president of the ATA, in a letter to conference committee member Sen. Pete Domenici this month.
House and Senate negotiators ironed out discrepancies in the daylight-saving time provision last week, but they are still working on other key provisions in the omnibus energy bill that could delay or even hinder its passage.
