It's Daylight Savings Time Again Today So The Legislature Has Yet Another Bill To End It

We set the clocks ahead again last night or this morning.  And the Alaska legislature has a bill to end Daylight Savings.Again    [I suspect the link to the Anchorage Daily News is paywalled for non-subscribers.]

The session I blogged the legislature from Juneau (2010) there was also a bill.  And it seems there's one every year.  So I'm not expecting it to pass.

From an Alaskan perspective there are extra wrinkles in all of this.

1.  When I first got to Alaska in 1977 the state had four (yes 4) time zones.  That was ended so it was easier for Alaskans, scattered across so many time zones, to know what time it was everywhere else in the state and for airlines and their passengers to stay sane traveling in the state.  

2.  Besides size, Alaska is north.  In the summer much of the state never actually gets dark.  In the winter much of the state has, at the winter solstice, five hours or less from sunrise to sunset.  So school kids are going to go to school or come home in the dark no matter what.  In some places both.  (Though when there is a white ground cover, it isn't quite as dark as you would expect.)

3.  I don't think we're going to end Daylight Savings time this year.  But I expect that one day it will happen.  Maybe on the national level.  But the legislature meets in Juneau, and as the post below says, 

"People in Southeast Alaska have a real issue because they are basically in Pacific time, so they get less light in the evening while the sun comes up 3am at solstice."

Below is that 2010 post on Daylight Savings time: 

Thursday, March 18, 2010

HB 19 to End Daylight Savings Time

The other two meetings going on right now are dealing with issues of far greater impact on Alaska I presume.  But this is one most Alaskans can understand easily and are impacted by most directly and tangibly.


Here is the table with copies of emails and letters for and against the bill.  










[Update:  I looked through these and they are all dated March 18 and some 17.  Actually this stack is misleading.  I didn't realize I have one big stack twice.  The vote was 62 for HB 19, 18 against, and four had other options, like get the US to change, but not just Alaska.]

Sen. Olson and Sen. Menard listen to phone testimony on the ending daylight savings time in Alaska.  

Rep. Anna Fairclough, the bill sponsor, responded to the comments received through the mail, email, and by phone today.  She said there were two reasons that have real justification for not changing:

1.  People in Southeast Alaska have a real issue because they are basically in Pacific time, so they get less light in the evening while the sun comes up 3am at solstice.
2.  The difficulty in coordinating with people outside of Alaska.  (I think this was the second one)

Other than these two points, most people prefer getting rid of daylight savings time.  A lot of this is about having to change and the disruption that causes with relatively little daylight impact for most Alaskans (further north and west than Southeast.)

Other issue:  Why don't we just spring forward and stay on daylight savings time the whole year.  There area a couple of issues:
1.  Feds, not states, can change time zones.
2.  Western Alaska would be even further off of sun time (opposite problem of Southeast.)

Meeting was adjourned just about 5pm with the decision postponed.