As daylight saving time returns, some Maine lawmakers hope to stop changing the clocks

The biannual follow of transferring clocks forwards and backwards to accommodate for daylight saving time is right here once more.

And so is the annual debate about whether or not to finish the follow and go away our clocks alone.

Paul Deveau of South Portland will get off his motorbike at Bug Gentle Park on Friday night. Derek Davis/Employees Photographer

Three payments pending within the Legislature would finish the follow of switching the clocks twice a 12 months in Maine or research the consequences of doing so. It’s possible the payments will likely be mixed right into a single proposal as lawmakers take them up within the coming weeks.

In the meantime, daylight saving time begins Sunday at 2 a.m. Which means clocks are set forward one hour, gaining extra daylight on the finish of the day.

Daylight saving time is outlined as a interval between spring and fall when clocks in most components of the nation are set one hour forward of ordinary time. It was initially enacted within the U.S. following Germany’s 1916 effort to preserve gasoline by lengthening daylight throughout World Conflict I, and its length has since been prolonged.

Congress in 2005 prolonged daylight saving time from six months to just about eight, from the second Sunday in March to the primary Sunday in November. Consequently, the U.S. now has 4 months of ordinary time, from November to March. The nation additionally has experimented earlier than with year-round daylight saving time, together with from 1942-1945 and from 1974-1975.

Shifting to everlasting daylight saving time, proponents say, may benefit companies and agriculture, and would enable folks to train and work outdoors later within the day. There are also well being impacts related to altering the clocks, although one medical knowledgeable stated that, whereas he helps eliminating the clock modifications, our organic clocks are higher aligned with customary time than daylight saving time.

The thought has broad help, however Maine’s Legislature has to date determined towards making the change if neighboring states don’t do it, too. Maine handed a regulation in 2019 that will make daylight saving time everlasting in Maine if federal regulation permits for year-round remark of daylight saving time and if the opposite states within the Jap time zone undertake comparable legal guidelines.

Newer efforts to cross legal guidelines that will finish clock modifications in Maine with out ready for the opposite states have failed.

A woman watches the sundown from Bug Gentle Park in South Portland on Friday night. Derek Davis/Employees Photographer

Whereas the Legislature has all the time fallen wanting the votes wanted to really finish the follow, dislike for daylight saving time is a bipartisan sentiment.

Separate payments sponsored by Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, and Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, would each lock the clock in Maine. Baldacci’s invoice would have Maine observe Jap Customary Time – the autumn/winter time – 12 months spherical. Ought to Bennett’s invoice cross, the state would observe Jap Daylight Time – the spring/summer season – for your entire 12 months.

These payments would get rid of the requirement that different japanese states additionally make the change, so the modifications would go into impact instantly if permitted by federal regulation.

A 3rd invoice that’s sponsored by Bennett and co-sponsored by Baldacci would direct the College of Maine System to review the potential impacts of adopting Atlantic Customary Time, the time zone for japanese Canada. Atlantic Customary Time is identical as Jap Daylight Time.

Altering the clocks for 4 months of the 12 months causes pointless turmoil in peoples’ lives, Bennett stated Friday. He stated different Jap states are contemplating comparable proposals.

“It throws off peoples’ schedules and there’s actually no want in right this moment’s world to have the change in any respect,” he stated.

Baldacci didn’t reply to an interview request to reply questions on his invoice.

Maine lawmakers usually are not the one ones wrestling with the clock debate.

Whether or not to ditch daylight saving time is being mentioned in states throughout the nation and on the federal degree.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Florida, reintroduced a invoice this month that will have your entire nation use daylight time – spring/summer season – 12 months spherical. The invoice was handed unanimously within the Senate final 12 months however was by no means taken up by the Home.

Proponents of that invoice, generally known as the Sunshine Safety Act, say it could have financial advantages, cut back stress and seasonal melancholy, and will even cut back power consumption. Some research have stated power financial savings can be minimal, nevertheless.

It’s time to make the change on the federal degree, in case you ask members of Maine’s congressional delegation. They unanimously supported the federal invoice final 12 months.

Bart and Beth Cory of Portland stroll at Bug Gentle Park in South Portland on Friday night. Derek Davis/Employees Photographer

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“It’s time to finish the follow of transferring our clocks twice a 12 months, which has been linked to greater charges of accidents, melancholy, and different well being points,” Sen. Susan Collins stated in a press release on the time. “Daylight saving time additionally has been proven to avoid wasting power and permits People who work a regular work shift through the day to take pleasure in extra daylight within the late afternoon for train or leisure actions.”

“Like many Maine folks, I’m uninterested in 4 p.m. sunsets and time-change whiplash that throws our collective routines out of whack,” Sen. Angus King stated on the time. “The benefits this back-and-forth system introduced over a century in the past are largely gone, and the issues to our households and world financial system have solely magnified over time.”

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