Posted on 07/29/2005 3:57:42 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) As Congress voted to extend daylight-saving time, some parents whose children wait for school buses in the morning darkness doubted whether an extra month of daylight is such a bright idea.
"I don't think that it's safe," said Nikki McIntosh of Little Rock, whose children Myah, 12, and Alex, 11, occasionally ride a bus to school.
Congress on Friday gave final approval to an energy bill that includes a four-week expansion of daylight-saving time in an effort to save energy. If President Bush signs the bill, most Americans would see their clocks "spring forward" the second Sunday of March and "fall back" the first Sunday of November, beginning in 2007.
Daylight-saving time now starts on the first Sunday of April and ends the last Sunday of October.
According to Congress' thinking, if Americans can wait an hour to turn on their lights at night, the nation should be able to conserve at least some energy.
"It won't be a huge savings, but it'll offset fuel costs. Every little bit helps," said Sue Clothier, 40, of Gansevoort, N.Y.
The extra hours will also give her more time to garden and spend outdoors with her three dogs, she said. "It's like extending the summer for four weeks," she said.
But the tradeoff for parents with school-age children is an extra 20 weekdays of sending pupils off to class in the dark and having them stay up later at night.
Lynnette Ryan of Colorado Springs, Colo., is already anticipating the battles with her children, now aged 1 and 5.
"It's going to be hard on them because they'll be going to day care in the dark. Then they come home, and it's going to be light in the evening -- and they're not going to want to go to bed," said Ryan, visiting her mother Friday in Morgantown, W.Va.
The change, though, would be beneficial for some farmers who would get an extra hour of daylight for a longer portion of the year.
Al Davis, who raises cattle in southwestern Cherry County, Neb., said the new daylight-saving plan will be helpful for his operation on the eastern side of the Mountain time zone.
"It gets dark here at 4 p.m. on the darkest day of the year," Davis said. "So this will be advantageous to us."
Jan Koch, who with her husband milks 250 cows and farms 500 acres near De Forest in southern Wisconsin, was mostly disgusted with Congress, but not for any effect the change would have on her farm.
"If that is the best Congress can come up with for an energy idea, we are in trouble," she said. "They should be able to come up with something better than that to save energy."
Matt Hand, 29, of Manhattan, said that even a few minutes more of sunshine would be welcomed in the fields where he sometimes plays frisbee after work -- even in the chill of autumn.
"It's not the temperature that stops us. It's when you can't see anymore," he said, resting by the edge of Central Park with his bicycle.
Others though, said the change would just add to the list of things to worry about.
"Why screw with my calendar year? I have such a busy life," said Jesse Jette of Albany, N.Y. "This is just one more thing to remember."
DST is nothing more than a cynical exercise of raw power by a government that can't resist controlling even the most minute aspects of our lives.
Y2K didn't screw up the computers so government will step in and do it themselves.
???
Feelings, duh, duh, duh, feelings...
LOL, thats right, changing DSL will mess up pc's won't it.
I meant DST
You pay for it in the morning, or you pay for it in the evening. Take your pick.
So why not just get up an hour earlier?
Oh, wait! That's exactly what DST makes you do.
I guess it wasn't acceptable until the government mandated it.
Um, how exactly does that work ... exactly.*
*rhetorical question to illustrate the absurdity of the author...
I don't like it. Try to put the kids to bed, but it's light until FReepin' midnight. Who needs this in November? And dark in the morning ... everybody stays in bed and you don't get anything done all morning.
Luckily, I live in Arizona where DST doesn't exist. :-)
The standard time is already next to meaningless here in Fairbanks. Local noon comes around 3 PM with Alaska DST in operation. Midnight, when it actually gets dark enough to bother to turn on a light if you have to read the newspaper, comes around 3 AM. By the time they switch back to regular time it will be dark until noon and dark again by 5 PM. It won't make a bit of difference in energy consumption, nor to the safety of schoolchildren dealing with the schoolbus. They could just leave Alaska out of DST altogether since we are already two hours off of local time, which is double DST to begin with.
its going to be a mess - VCRs, computers, etc.
"List of things to worry about?" What a jack-ass!
I sometimes have to be in Buenos Aires, Argentina on a Monday morning at 8:30 am for a businesws meeting, and I have to figger owt how too git thar in tyme for da meating. DUH!
Starting next year, I've resolved to modify my work schedule so that daylight savings time won't even exist for me. I'm gonna keep my watch set the same way all year, and arrive at work in the morning -- and stay at work in the evening -- one hour later than everyone else.
I still don't understand how this saves any electricity/energy. You turn the lights on the same amount of hours.
The original purpose was to allow farmers to work later into the evening.
This is dumb, because it means that Americans will be burning their lights in the morning before going off to work and school.
Because the guy in New York gets to play frisbee after work.
Microwave ovens will flash 1:00, 1:00, 1:00 or 11:00, 11:00, 11:00.
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