BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS
                              Senator Ben Hueso, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          Bill No:          AB 385            Hearing Date:    6/13/2016
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          |Author:    |Chu                                                  |
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          |Version:   |5/9/2016    As Amended                               |
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          |Urgency:   |No                     |Fiscal:      |Yes             |
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          |Consultant:|Jay Dickenson, Genesis Tang                          |
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          SUBJECT: Daylight Saving Time

          DIGEST:  This bill would place a question before the voters  
          regarding whether to keep Daylight Saving Time (DST) as it  
          currently exists or switch to year round standard time.  As a  
          result, a change would require the Legislature's approval of an  
          initiative to be placed on the ballot giving California voters  
          the option of deciding to remain in DST or eliminate it  
          entirely.
           
           ANALYSIS:
          
          Existing law:
          
          1)Federal law establishes the standard time of the United States  
            for each of nine zones and advances the standard time of each  
            zone by one hour during the period commencing at 2:00 a.m. on  
            the second Sunday of March of each year and ending at 2:00  
            a.m. on the first Sunday of November of each year.              



          2)The DST Act, which was adopted as an initiative measure by the  
            voters at the November 8, 1949, special election, provides  
            that the standard time within the state is that which is  
            known, described, and designated by federal law as United  
            States Standard Pacific Time.


          3)Requires, from 1:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of April, until  
            2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October, the standard time  








          AB 385 (Chu)                                           PageB of?
          
            within the state to be one hour in advance of United States  
            Standard Pacific Time.



          The bill would place a question before the voters regarding  
          whether to keep DST as it currently exists or switch to  
          year-round Standard Time.  As a result, a change would require  
          the Legislature's approval of an initiative to be placed on the  
          ballot giving California voters the option of deciding to remain  
          in DST or eliminate it entirely.


          Background

          Benjamin Franklin (1784) is credited with the basic idea of DST  
          after observing that people were sleeping during sunlit hours in  
          the early morning and burning candles for illumination in the  
          evening.  However, it didn't "officially" begin in the U.S.  
          until World War I (1918), 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 DST after the war  
          ended, DST wasn't officially observed nationally again until  
          1942, when it was re-enacted for World War II, then repealed  
          after the war in 1945. 

          From 1945 to 1966, there was no federal law regarding DST, so  
          states and localities were free to choose whether to observe DST  
          and could choose when it began and ended.  This understandably  
          caused confusion, especially for the broadcasting industry, as  
          well as for railways, airlines, and bus companies.<1> 

          The Daylight Saving Time Act.  California voters passed  
          Proposition 12 in 1949, approving DST in the state, and that the  
          standard time within the state is that which is known,  
          described, and designated by federal law as United States  
          Standard Pacific Time.


          The Uniform Time Act of 1966.  This federal act established a  
          standardized system of operating DST throughout the U.S. and its  


          ---------------------------
          <1> "Daylight Savings Time". WebExhibits.  
          http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/e.html








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          territories, exempting only those states and territories that  
          enacted laws to keep their entire state or territory on standard  
          time.  Most states opted for a coordinated DST.  However, the  
          Uniform Time Act allows states to choose only to remain on  
          standard time as an alternative but not to choose to remain on  
          DST.

          In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a state  
          was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part  
          of the state that was in one time zone while providing that the  
          part of the state in a different time zone would observe DST.  
          The Federal law was amended in 1986 to begin DST on the first  
          Sunday in April.<2> 

          Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Extended DST in the U.S. by three  
          weeks in the spring and one week in the fall, beginning on March  
          11 2007, in the hope that the extension would save energy.   
          Since then, California has begun DST at 2:00 a.m. on the second  
          Sunday of March and ended at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of  
          November.  Should Congress enact legislation to allow a state to  
          adopt DST year round, the change would have to be approved by  
          California voters.


          Findings: 

                 Today, the Uniform Time Act provides that either  
               Congress or the Secretary of Transportation can change a  
               time-zone boundary.<3> 
           
                 DST is currently practiced in 76 countries and directly  
               affects more than 1.6 billion people worldwide.<4> 

                 States and territories in the United States that do not  
               observe DST include: most of Arizona, Hawaii, American  
               Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 

                 Some parts of Indiana did not observe daylight saving  
               time in the past.
             --------------------------
          <2> "Daylight Savings Time"
          <3> US Department of Transportation
          <4> Matthew J. Kotchen and Laura E. Grant, "Does Daylight Saving  
          Time Save Energy? Evidence form a Natural Experiment in  
          Indiana". The National Bureau of Economic Research.  
          http://www.nber.org/papers/w14429








          AB 385 (Chu)                                           PageD of?
          

                 According to a national telephone survey of 1,000 adults  
               conducted March 5-6, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports concluded  
               that only 33 percent of American adults think DST is worth  
               the hassle.  48 percent do not think the clock changing  
               ritual is worth it, but percent are not sure. 

          Estimates of DST effects. The California Energy Commission (CEC)  
          conducted a research on DST published in 2007 that examined  
          whether and how much the Policy Act of 2005 changed daily  
          electricity.  The extension of DST to March 2007 had little or  
          no effect on energy consumption in California, according to a  
          statistical analysis. The most likely approximation is a 0.2  
          percent decrease during these three weeks.  
           
          In 2008 a study was published by the National Bureau of Economic  
          Research, who studied energy use in Indiana.  The experiment in  
          the state of Indiana provided the first empirical estimates of  
          DST effects on electricity consumption in the United States  
          since the mid-1970s focusing on residential electricity demand.   
          The main finding, contrary to the policy's intent:  DST  
          increases residential electricity demand.  An estimate of the  
          overall increase is approximately one percent.  DST causes the  
          greatest increase in electricity consumption in the fall, when  
          estimates range between two percent and four percent.

          Potential cost in California.  According to a 2008 a study by  
          the National Bureau of Economic Research, Indiana households pay  
          an additional $9 million per year in energy bills because of  
          DST.  Also it was estimated a social costs of increased  
          pollution emissions that range from $1.7 to $5.5 million per  
          year.  The study concluded that the effect is likely to be even  
          stronger in other regions of the United States.  
           
          Another step away from uniformity.  The purpose of the UTA 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 UTA not to move to DST during the  
          summer means that states already aren't operating on a uniform  
          time system.  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.










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          Intended benefits. Reports indicate that in regions with a  
          temperate climate, DST results in energy savings and year round  
          DST could potentially increase these savings as well as,  
          industrial efficiency. Additionally, extra daylight in the  
          evening hours could provide a boost to the tourism and shopping  
          industries.<5> 

          According to the US National Library of Medicine National  
          Institutes of Health
          studies have connected DST with a reduction in pedestrian and  
          driver fatalities, as well as a decrease in robberies.

          According to research presented at the American College of  
          Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session it seems moving the  
          clock forward or backward may alter the timing of when heart  
          attacks occur in the week following these time changes. 

          Final thoughts.  Studies have shown ongoing debate about whether  
          DST is needed anymore. Widely implemented during World War I, it  
          was primarily adopted to save energy.  Still some experts  
          question whether it really saves energy and if it has negative  
          health effects beyond just leaving people feeling groggy and out  
          of sorts.<6>



          Prior/Related Legislation
          
          AB 2496 (Chu, 2016) declares the intent of the Legislature to  
          enact legislation to establish United States Standard Pacific  
          Time as the standard time within the state during the entire  
          year.  The bill is pending referral at the Assembly Desk.

          AJR 28 (Obernolte, 2016) memorializes the Congress and the  
          President to enact legislation that would allow a state to adopt  
          daylight saving time year round.  The bill is also being  
          considered in this committee.

          AJR 56 (Longville, Chapter 127, Statutes of 2000) memorializes  
          ---------------------------
          <5> American College of Cardiology. "Daylight saving impacts  
          timing of heart attacks." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 March  
          2014. .
          <6> American College of Cardiology. "Daylight saving impacts  
          timing of heart attacks." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 March  
          2014. .








          AB 385 (Chu)                                           PageF of?
          
          the President and the Congress to enact legislation to allow  
          states the opportunity to choose year-round daylight saving  
          time, in addition to standard time or the current system of  
          "traditional" daylight saving time.  

          SJRX2 1 (Karnette, Chapter 1, Statutes of 2001) this measure  
          would memorialize the Congress to approve legislation that  
          allows a state to uniformly apply daylight saving time year  
          round.

          FISCAL EFFECT:                 Appropriation:  No    Fiscal  
          Com.:             Yes          Local:          No


            SUPPORT:  

          An individual

          OPPOSITION:

          None received

          ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT:    According to the author:

               Californians lose an hour in the spring to adjust to  
               Daylight Saving Time. Whether it increases in the number of  
               recorded heart attacks, greater likelihood of industrial  
               and workplace injuries, or a noticeable uptick in traffic  
               accidents and fatalities, there is correlative evidence  
               that the loss of one hour each year constitutes an  
               unnecessary public health emergency. The burden must be on  
               the supporters of preserving DST to demonstrate what  
               tangible reasons are there to continue the status quo when  
               doing so causing demonstrable harm to the public.
          
          
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