BILL ANALYSIS 1
1
SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
SJR 1X - Karnette Hearing Date:
April 17, 2001 S
As Introduced: January 24, 2001 Non-FISCAL J
R
X
1
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DESCRIPTION
Current federal law allows states to operate on standard time
year-round or to operate for part of the year on standard time
and part of the year (the first Sunday in April through the last
Sunday in October) on Daylight Saving Time (DST).
Current state law doesn't require California to operate on
standard time on a year-round basis, so the state therefore
operates on DST for nearly seven months of the year.
This resolution outlines the history of DST and memorializes the
President and Congress to allow states to operate on DST on a
year-round basis.
BACKGROUND
DST was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 as a way of
saving on candles. It was first seriously advocated by William
Willit, a British builder, in his pamphlet "Waste of Daylight"
in 1907, but it didn't officially begin in the U.S. until World
War I, when it was enacted primarily to extend the length of the
production day and save fuel by reducing the need to use
artificial lighting. Although some states and communities
observed daylight saving time after the war's end, DST wasn't
officially observed nationally again until 1942, when it was
re-enacted for World War II, then repealed after the war.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a standardized system
of operating DST throughout the U.S. and its territories,
exempting only those states and territories that enacted laws to
keep their entire state or territory on standard time. One of
the driving forces behind the creation of the Act was Fred
Ackerman, the Chairman of the Greyhound Bus Lines Board. In the
early 1960's, Greyhound couldn't print bus schedules fast enough
to keep up with the time changes throughout the country. Bus
schedules were obsolete in two weeks and so complicated that the
average passenger couldn't decode them - then when the passenger
missed the bus, he or she would generally blame the bus company.
The entire country went on year-round DST during the 1974 energy
crisis in an effort to save energy. While some savings were
realized, a number of people - in particular those in the
farming community - complained being on year-round DST made them
work an extra hour in the dark in the early morning winter
months and getting an extra hour of light at the end of the day
wasn't worth the trade-off. The plug was pulled on the
year-round DST experiment in April 1975 and the current system
of beginning DST at 2:00 a.m. on first Sunday in April and
ending it at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October was
standardized in 1986.
Today, DST begins at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in April,
when clocks "spring" forward one hour, and ends at 2:00 a.m. on
the last Sunday of October when clocks "fall back" one hour to
standard time.
Hawaii, the eastern time zone portion of Indiana, Arizona
(except for the area of the Navajo Indian Reservation), American
Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands don't observe
DST.
COMMENTS
1)Got A Light? Whether the country operates full-time on
standard time, on split time, or on DST year-round as it did
in 1974, no "new" light is created. Rather, it's question of
when light is provided - in the early morning or the late
afternoon/early evening.
The following is a look at when the sun would rise and set in
Sacramento under the various time zone options that would be
available if the federal government acted on SJR 1X and gave
California the ability to move to DST on a year-round basis:
-------------------------------------------------------------
| |Current ST/DST | Full-Time ST | Full-Time DST |
-------------------------------------------------------------
|----------+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------|
| |Sunrise|Sunset |Sunrise| Sunset |Sunrise | Sunset |
| | | | | | | |
|----------+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------|
|March 21 | 6:08 | 6:19 | 6:08 | 6:19 | 7:08 | 7:19 |
| | a.m.| p.m.| a.m.| p.m.| a.m.| p.m.|
|----------+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------|
|June 21 | 5:42 | 8:33 | 4:40 | 7:21 | 5:42 | 8:33 |
| | a.m.| p.m.| a.m.| p.m.| a.m.| p.m.|
|----------+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------|
|December | 7:20 | 4:48 | 7:20 | 4:48 | 8:20 | 5:48 |
|21 | a.m.| p.m.| a.m.| p.m.| a.m.|p.m. |
-------------------------------------------------------------
(Data obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory Website on Sun
and Moon Data )
2)Light Evenings Mean Dark Mornings . In the summer time, when
the period between sunrise and sunset is about 15 hours long,
the effect of moving one hour of light between morning and
evening isn't very pronounced. As noted in the above example,
sunrise shifts from 4:40 a.m. to 5:42 a.m. in Sacramento as a
result of going to DST. However, moving an hour of light from
the morning to the evening in the winter months when the
period between sunrise and sunset is just over 9 hours will
arguably have a much greater impact on people's lives when,
for example, the sun wouldn't rise in Sacramento until 8:20
a.m.
3)Safety Issues . Some believe that going to DST on a year-round
basis will reduce the number of traffic accidents because
there will more light at the end of the day. Others believe
that there won't be any net safety benefit because a move to
year-round DST doesn't "create" more daylight, it just moves
it from the morning to the evening, which may only have the
effect of moving the frequency of accidents from the evening
to the morning.
Some have noted that when year-round DST was adopted during
the 1974 energy crisis, one of the reasons it was repealed was
an increased number of bus accidents in the morning.
A University of British Columbia study of traffic accidents
throughout Canada in 1991 and 1992 found an 8% increase in
traffic accidents on the Monday after the April "spring
forward" to DST. Whether the accidents stem primarily from
people being forced to drive in darker conditions or from
people driving with an hour less of sleep isn't clear from the
study.
4)Another Step Away From Uniformity . The purpose of the Uniform
Time Act of 1966 was to put states on a relatively uniform
time schedule within their specific times zones. Granted, the
fact that Hawaii, most of Arizona, and the eastern portion of
Indiana have exercised the option under the Uniform Time Act
not to move to DST during the summer means that states aren't
operating on a uniform time system today. However, this
proposal, if enacted by the federal government, gives states
the option to move even further away from the notion of a
uniform time system by going to DST on a year-round basis.
5)An Encore Appearance . Last year, the committee and the full
Senate passed AJR 56 (Longville), Resolution Chapter 127,
Statutes of 2000, which is nearly identical to SJR 1X.
6)Congress Is On The Case . California Congressman Brad Sherman
(D-Woodland Hills) introduced HR 704 on February 14, 2001 to
permit states in the Pacific time zone to temporarily adjust
the standard time in response to the energy crisis. The
measure is pending before the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer
Protection.
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Oppose:
None on file
Randy Chinn
SJR 1X Analysis
Hearing Date: April 17, 2001