Apparently, U.S. senators are fed up with setting the clock back and forward an hour a couple of times a year, so this Tuesday, without prior notice or debate, they unanimously approved legislation to make daylight saving time permanent throughout the United States, a measure that, if approved by President Joseph Biden, would take effect as of 2023.
One of the oldest arguments in favor of daylight saving time is that it can save energy costs. However, many studies have challenged this claim.
Even in 2008, a Department of Energy report noted that extended daylight saving time, signed by George W. Bush in 2005, saved about 0.5 percent in total electricity use per day.
Also that year, a study carried out by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the change in daylight saving time, contrary to policy intent, increased residential electricity demand by about 1 percent, which raised electricity bills in Indiana by as much as $9 million per year, and increased pollutant emissions.
It should be noted that neither Hawaii nor most of Arizona, as well as several U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, apply daylight saving time.
As recently as 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine called for the abolition of daylight saving time, claiming that by disrupting the body's natural clock, it could cause an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular accidents, and lead to more traffic accidents.
However, not all is said and done, as the bill in the House still needs to be passed there and signed by President Biden, and then take effect in November 2023.
Just this Sunday, March 13, daylight saving time began in much of the country. With this, Americans had to move their clocks forward one hour and, in many cases, suffer from the lack of sleep.
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