Abolish Daylight Saving Time in Pennsylvania

           A bill is being introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to abolish Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the Commonwealth.  I had posted on this subject in March of 2011 in my post, Abolish Daylight Saving Time: https://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2011/03/abolish-daylight-savings-time.html.  Since then, more information has become available through studies as to the costs of the disruption of changing clocks twice a year versus the supposed benefits. 

Instead of federal legislation to abolish the semi-annual changing of the clocks across the American Union, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can lead the effort to eliminate this burdensome practice.  Only two States have opted out of DST, Arizona (except for Navajo Nation land) and Hawaii, while every United States unincorporated territory also does not observe DST.

            Turning clocks forward or behind an hour is damaging not only economically, as DST imposes a cost to businesses, but costly in terms of safety and physical and mental health.  More accidents, strokes and suicides because of the loss of sleep and disruption of the Circadian rhythm are not worth the negligible or non-existent benefits of energy savings, which was the original intent when DST was introduced in the mid-Twentieth Century.  The length of DST was subsequently further expanded.  Although it often mistakenly said that DST benefits farmers, farmers would awaken with the Sun before DST, as they could again.  

           The subject of the abolition of changing the clocks gives rise to a debate over whether Pennsylvania, with Congressional approval, should opt to switch from Eastern Standard Time (EST) to DST permanently, but the proposed bill eliminates DST because the Keystone State’s geographic position makes the meridian of EST close to the Sun’s highest position in the sky.  Therefore, the bill would effectively end semi-annual clock-changing by leaving Pennsylvania on EST permanently.  Remaining on EST all year round would also minimize differences with neighboring or nearby Eastern States, until they, too opt out of DST or Congress abolishes it entirely.