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Spring Forward Early
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is this coming Sunday the 11th at 2:00 a.m. I find myself repeating this over and over again. I keep reminding myself of this to ease my paranoia that I will forget and show up to work late. Generally between my excitement for the longer evenings (even at the horrible sacrifice of one hour sleep) and my mom calling to remind me on the appropriate Saturday, DST is not a problem. But this year I’m already off. This year our spring forward is happening three weeks earlier than we’re used to. My first selfish thought about this is why do I have to wake up in the dark again just when the mornings are finally getting light? I had heard some reference to energy conservation but wanted an official answer. Lauren wrote a column on DST a while back laying out the basic idea behind it all and directing us to a specific website by the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement. I won’t repeat what she wrote but I will recommend this same site webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html. This site is still great for basic and clear information about DST. The introduction page on this site states, "Even today, regions and countries routinely change their approaches to Daylight Saving Time." How true. Continuing on I read on August 8, 2005 President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act is what set DST to begin on the second Sunday in March and to end on the first Sunday in November effective 2007. The purpose is in fact to conserve energy. The U.S. Department of Transportation has reported saving energy when DST was previously extended (this is not the first time), even translating the savings into a specific number of barrels of oil per year. Congress has held the right to go back to the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October if this extension is unpopular or if energy savings are not significant and once a study is complete. You can read about earlier law and exact amounts of energy saved on the Web site. Check it out! Always one to try and conserve energy I’ll give it a try, but I’ll admit I’m a little less excited this year about DST. Nevertheless we all still need to remember to set the clock forward this coming Sunday. Hopefully between this column and my mom I will remember.
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