Daylight Saving Time or DST has long been a biannual ritual in America, where the citizens change their clocks one hour back and forth. And America is now possibly going to make the change permanent. This March, just two days after the Daylight Saving Time was set, the US Senate passed a bill to make DST permanent. Now if the bill is passed, DST would be permanent in the nation.
The Result
If passed, this change would bring a huge difference in the mundane practices of the nation’s habitants. As a result of Daylight Saving Time, during the shorter days of winter, the extra dark period would be shifted towards the morning. That means the sun would rise later in the day, instead of setting in the middle of the afternoon, adding more sunlight to the day.
The History of DST
The idea was first introduced as a fuel conservation effort during WWI. The concept behind this was that the citizens wouldn’t have to turn on the lights early in the day, thus saving energy consumption. But the businesses and entertainment industry also reaped the benefit of extended sunlight during normal times. The stores encouraged people for that extra hour of shopping, and attendance got boosted in the sports industries as the games could start later.
The Previous Implementations
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 adopted the nationwide policy to observe six months of Standard Time and the remaining six months of Daylight Saving Time. Then amid a nationwide energy crisis, President Nixon signed the bill for year-round DST in December of 1973. But the experiment met with public protests after eight school-going children in Florida were involved in pre-dawn car accidents in wintertime. After eight months, Congress had to revert back to Standard Time. So this time, DST is under tight scrutiny once before it can get implemented permanently.