Daylight Saving Time

Congress recently passed a new energy bill,
which included language that will lengthen Daylight Saving Time (DST) by approximately
one month, starting in 2007.

DST will begin on the second Sunday in March (three weeks earlier than the current start of the first Sunday in April) and will end on the first Sunday in November (one week later than the current end time of the last Sunday in October).
This will increase the total amount of time that DST is in effect to eight months out of the year, which begs to question if there is any real need for the term Standard Time.

Congress had originally debated the possibility of increasing the period
of DST by two months (starting the first Sunday in March and ending the
last Sunday in November [just after Thanksgiving]) because of an antiquated
study that was performed during the oil crisis of the mid-70s which stated
that extending DST would have saved the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil
per day. After finding out that the study was so old, Congress decided to
scrap that proposal and adopt the DST language in the energy bill.

Had the original proposal gone through, there could have been an even
stronger argument for dissolving the Standard Time as we know it.
Perhaps they could revise the term and refer to the period between early
November and early March as Non-Daylight Time and abbreviate it as NT
(e.g. Eastern Non-Daylight Time would be abbreviated at ENT), because let’s
face it, Standard Time is no longer that and Daylight Time has become the
new standard.

I propose the following measures to put this issue to bed once and for all:

1) Have DST run from the first Sunday after the first day of Spring until
thefirst Sunday after the first day of Autumn (Fall). The start time
would not be much different from when DST is scheduled to start in '07 and
it would coincide with the beginning of Spring. It would also cut back on
the amount of electricity used for air conditioning in September
(yes, people still use their A/C in September [try living in South Texas
for a couple of years, you'll find out the hard way that the 90-plus degree
heat doesn't go away until late September or early October])

2) Invest more time and money into researching alternative energy sources. The price of oil has been spiraling upwards at a break-neck pace and there is no relief in sight. Solar energy and safe usage of nuclear energy are two very good alternatives that could be used for everyday living and help curb the demand for oil.

At the rate that things are going with DST, standard time may become a thing
of the past. There is a good possibility that DST could be extended to the timeline originally proposed by Congress or even beyond that (say maybe only a month or two of Standard Time) and that would totally defeat the purpose of having it. DST should be used a little more judiciously and remain the exception and not the rule.