[Southsider2k12]

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../08/news/n2.txt

Daylight-saving time comes early this year

By Deborah Sederberg, The News-Dispatch

It's only March, but local residents who want to be on time for church or work this Sunday morning will have to set their clocks an hour ahead three weeks earlier this year.

It's time to “spring forward,” but it's still winter because of a law that added four weeks of daylight time per year in hopes it would reduce energy usage. The energy savings is debated, with advocates saying the time change will result in an hour's less need for lights in homes during the evening.

Until this year, daylight time was observed beginning the first Sunday of April until the last Sunday of October. Now it begins the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November, with the time change at 2 a.m.

None of the five local residents who talked with The News-Dispatch on Wednesday afternoon seemed bothered by the early change.

“My husband works in New Carlisle. We're actually disappointed that we didn't go with the Eastern time zone,” said Jamie Lilly of Michigan City. “But I probably prefer it for the sake of the kids. They can play outside longer.”

Patti Potrzebowski of Westville said, “I think it's great. I like having longer daylight hours in the evening.”

Evelyn Washington, Michigan City, was positive, too. “I do think I will like it,” she said. “It does give more daylight for the kids after school. I think it's safer.”

It's a tradeoff, said Dane Potrzebowski of Westville. He knows it will be darker when his son, a student at Chesterton High School, gets on the school bus at 6:45 a.m. For the most part, however, he said, “It's no big deal to me. I just go with the flow. Somebody thought this was a good idea and here we are.”

Winfred Poole, Michigan City, used to live in a farming community. “The farmers didn't particularly like the change,” he said, “because the animals don't recognize the time change. They want to eat at the same time they've been eating regardless of what time zone they're in.”

Contact reporter Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana's bars and restaurants can change their clocks an hour after the official start of statewide daylight-saving time this weekend.

Gov. Mitch Daniels has directed that bars, restaurants and taverns will not have to turn their clocks ahead until 3 a.m. this Sunday morning. The official start of daylight-saving time is 2 a.m. Sunday, so that time would become 3 a.m., the cutoff time for serving alcohol.

The change this Sunday would have effectively denied bars, taverns and restaurants an hour of being able to serve alcohol early Sunday. Instead, Daniels decided that bar and restaurant owners can operate as usual overnight Sunday and remain open for their standard hours.

Daniels issued the same directive last year, when a new Indiana law went into effect that mandated statewide observance daylight-saving time. Most of the state had spent more than 30 years not observing the time change as 47 other states had done.

Under a federal law, daylight-saving time is starting three weeks earlier than before this year.

Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said the governor again decided to allow bars to change their clocks an hour later than the official switch because of the lost business they would incur and the three-week adjustment to when daylight-time begins.

[Max Main]

go to npr.org and look up the story about daylight savings time and the energy savings or lack thereof.

go to npr.org and look up the story about daylight savings time and the energy savings or lack thereof.

[Ang]

go to npr.org and look up the story about daylight savings time and the energy savings or lack thereof.

Following is the article Max referred us to:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7786075

Energy Concerns Push Clocks Forward this Weekend
by Nell Boyce


DST Schedule, 2007 - 2009
* In 2007, daylight-saving time begins March 11 and ends Nov. 4.

* In 2008, daylight-saving time begins March 9 and ends Nov. 2.

* In 2009, daylight-saving time begins March 8 and ends Nov. 1.



Morning Edition, March 9, 2007 · The annual ritual of resetting our clocks to spring forward one hour usually starts on the first Sunday in April. This year, daylight-saving time starts three weeks early. It's a change that could affect everything from computer systems to golf courses. So why do it?

"The bottom line is that it's going to save energy," says Fred Upton, a Republican congressman from Michigan who pushed the change. "For every single day that we extend daylight-saving time, we would save the energy equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil."

Those numbers come from the experience in the 1970s, when the nation extended daylight-saving time because of the energy crisis. Saving energy has long been the main argument for resetting our clocks; it's why Benjamin Franklin argued for the practice, which he said would save on candles.

But in a study last year, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated that, overall, this year's extension into March and November will probably save very little energy — far less than 1 percent of the nation's annual energy consumption.

Another recent study, by the California Energy Commission, came to a similar conclusion of a very small effect. Bob Aldrich works for the commission and notes that the nation now uses energy differently than it did decades ago.

"We've become much more electronically configured, if you will," he says, noting that people plug in all kinds of things: computers, larger televisions, cable modems, satellite dishes, etc.

He says we'll just have to wait and see how much energy actually gets saved with an extended daylight-saving time.

Some effects of the daylight extension will be immediately obvious. Many older electronic devices have internal clocks that are programmed to spring forward in April, not March. That has raised fears of a mini-Y2K-type problem. It's why Congress gave the public two years' notice before making the switch.

David Prerau, author of Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time, says there's still time to get ready.

"If you have software programs or electronic devices that are preprogrammed to the old daylight saving time system, you should contact the manufacturers and see if they have patches to upgrade them to the new system," says Prerau, who also advises people to keep an eye on things like electronic calendars.

But other than that, he says, just change your clocks and enjoy.

"Most people, given the choice, prefer to have an extra hour of light in the evening, after work or after school, than in the morning," he says. "I'm personally looking forward to maybe playing some outdoor tennis a few weeks earlier."

He's not the only one who will be getting out of the house. Longer afternoons mean that people spend more money after work — especially on sports like softball and golf.

Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time, says it's not clear that, say, golf courses will benefit as much in wintry March, "because it's obviously true that in Boulder, or in Bangor, Maine, people are going to have to shovel off their greens if they want to tee up."

Downing says there are other minor problems, too. International airlines have had to change schedules, because many other countries won't spring forward until next month. Schoolchildren will spend more time at dark bus stops. Orthodox Jews who pray after sunrise may have to wait until 8:30 a.m. or even later, in some places, making it hard for them to get to work on time.

Plus, darker mornings could simply depress millions of people who have seasonal affective disorder, or wintertime depression.

"One of the main factors involved in the genesis of seasonal affective disorder is the lack of morning light," says David Avery, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle. Avery wrote to Congress to oppose the extension of daylight-saving time. But the measure passed, and now it's the law.

So reset your clocks this weekend — unless you live in Arizona or Hawaii. They don't follow daylight-saving time at all.

A Time-Change Timeline

Enlarge Benjamin Franklin — shown in a 1783 engraving by Nathaniel Currier — is credited with advancing the concept of daylight-saving time. He wanted to save candles. MPI/Getty Images

NPR.org, March 8, 2007 · 1784: Ben Franklin writes a paper extolling the virtues of extending daylight in order to save candles.

1883: The U.S. and Canada listen to the cries of their railroad executives and adopt Standard Time.

1918: The U.S. establishes a daylight-saving time to run for seven months to conserve electricity during World War I. Once the war was over, the national law is dropped and daylight-saving time became a local option.

1942: During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt orders a year-round daylight-saving time, called "War Time," which runs for three years.

1944: For the next two decades, there is no national law. States and jurisdictions can choose whether to observe daylight-saving time and when to begin and end it.

1966: Congress passes the Uniform Time Act of 1966, establishing a beginning and end date for daylight-saving time, but leaves it up to local jurisdictions to decide whether to use it.

1973: Congress enacts the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act in response to the Arab oil embargo. Daylight-saving time is extended to eight months rather than the normal six. The Department of Transportation says the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day was saved.

1986: Daylight saving is moved from the last Sunday of April to the first Sunday of April. The end date is left the same.

1987: Chile delays its time change by one day to accommodate a papal visit.

2005: Congress passes the Energy Act of 2005 which starts daylight-saving time one month earlier in the spring and extends it one week later in the fall, beginning in 2007.

[RexKickass]

So this just means the riots at Ohio University are a month earlier.

[Southsider2k12]

See this is why you have to read between the lines. The article states that will save "far less than 1 percent of the nation's annual energy consumption " and the first thing that comes to my mind is "Duh?"

The author is making this seem like this is a huge shock, when it reality you are talking about 42 hours worth of change, and comparing it to total consumption which just happens to be 365 days time 24 hours... Yeah, it probably is going to be way less than 1%.