Bill to End Daylight Saving Time in California Still Ticking

SACRAMENTO, CA — A bill that would allow Californians to vote on whether to keep Daylight Saving Time or switch to year-round standard time is still ticking. Assembly Bill 385 passed the state Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday by a vote of 6-1, sending the bill to the state Senate for a vote.

The goal of the bill's author, Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San José, is to get the item on the ballot so Californians can decide if they still want to "fall back" and "spring forward" each year.

"Daylight Saving Time is an institution that has been in place largely without question for more than half a century," Chu said in a news release. "I think we owe it to the general public to be given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not it ought to be continued."

Daylight Saving Time — or DST — has been in place since 1949 when California voters approved Proposition 12, enacting DST in the spring and summer months by moving clocks ahead one hour. At the time, it was touted as a way to save fuel as people would need to use less energy in the evening since it would get darker later during the summer months.

However, Chu said, in the modern world we live in, the fuel and electricity savings of the time switch really do not materialize.

A 2008 National Bureau of Economic Research study provided the first empirical estimates on how DST affects electricity consumption. The study found that DST increases residential electricity demand by approximately 1 percent, and up to 4 percent in the fall when clocks are set back an hour.

In addition to the lack of dramatic energy savings, he said, there are also several public health issues that arise out of DST.

"For example, the number of recorded heart attacks, industrial and workplace injuries, and traffic accidents and fatalities also increase in the days following the time change," Chu said.

AB 385 must pass through the Senate and then the Assembly, the be signed by the governor before it could be placed on the ballot. There would be one-time costs between $414,000 and $552,000 for printing and mailing to have the measure included in a statewide election, presumably in 2018.

Time will tell if California joins Hawaii and Arizona as the only U.S. states to not observe Daylight Saving Time.

Image via Pixabay