Like it or not, at 2 am this Sunday morning, we “fall back” to Eastern Standard Time.
UDATED—(AVC News)—Benjamin Franklin is often credited with the idea of time change, however, that has been despited by many.
Franklin, in anonymous letter, proposed the idea in 1784, but many feel his suggestion was more of humorous observation.
War brought time changes into being.
In 1918, DST was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure during World War I, in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources, but was not very popular, especially with rural Americans, and was dropped about six months later.
In February of 1942, during WW II, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted a year-round DST. Called “War Time”, it too, proved unpopular, but lasted until September 1945.
After WWII, federal law basically, left time changes up to local towns and states, which created massive confusion.
Congress stepped in with the Uniform Time Ace of 1966, creating a predictable system, including, you guessed it, the bi-annual time change.
During the 1974 oil shortage, energy crisis, Daylight Saving Time was made permanent in January, however this proved to be unpopular and was reversed by Congress in October of 1974.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 cam into law, extending the length of Daylight Saving Time as it is now.
When ever a time change occurs, the discussion of eliminating it arises.
Curiously enough, despite the lessons of 1942, the U.S. is again looking to abolish the time change.
Currently 19 states (Ohio has not) have enacted legislation to move to permanent DST, however, under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states cannot independently switch over on their own.
A permanent time change must be approved on the Federal level. However, states such as Arizona and Hawaii) may opt out and stay of Standard Time.
In July of this year, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan bill making DST permanent nationwide by a vote of 308-117, however, the bill has stalled out in the U.S. Senate with no clear path forward.
In this day and age, the labor intensive chore of changing clocks has diminished as many clocks change themselves.
However, safety authorities say during the time change, while changing (or checking) your clocks, this is a perfect time to change in the batteries in your home smoke/fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors as well as your all hazards/weather alert radio.
