Posted on 07/31/2005 5:45:59 AM PDT by cloud8
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) did manage to get a monthlong extension of daylight-saving time (beginning three weeks earlier in the spring and extending one week later in the fall).
Just think of all the computers which automatically change over to Daylight/standard time which will not now. Someone will have to write updates for all those operating systems...Some systems will likely not be readily upgradeable. And this saves what???
You got Markey?, well, I have Willy Bellyhunt
This is Markey's greatest accomplishment in his 31 year career in the House.* It will affect the lives of every American. Think of that!
Personally, I hate DST. But if one, ONE kid is injured or, God help us, killed crossing the street while walking to school in the dark, his blood will be on Markey's hands.
* Markey's only other accomplishment. He was responsible for the disastrous telecom bill that deregulated cable and raised everyone's rates in the early 90s when he was subcommittee chairman.
Here's some reasoning on the energy savings ...
http://tf.nist.gov/general/daylightsavingtime.html
One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.
In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.
Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.
Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.
We also use less electricity because we are home fewer hours during the "longer" days of spring and summer. Most people plan outdoor activities in the extra daylight hours. When we are not at home, we don't turn on the appliances and lights. A poll done by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that Americans liked Daylight Saving Time because "there is more light in the evenings / can do more in the evenings."
Daylight Saving Time also saves a small amount of energy in the morning when we rise. Studies show that 70 percent of all Americans rise prior to 7 a.m. during the work week. During the summer months, sunrise is very early in the morning, so most people will wake after the sun rises. Because the sun is up, we will turn on fewer lights in our homes. Thus, we actually use less energy in the morning.
So, we save energy in both the evening and the morning because we use less electricity for lighting and appliances.
In the winter, the afternoon Daylight Saving Time advantage is offset by the morning's need for more lighting. In spring and fall, the advantage is less than one hour. So, Daylight Saving Time saves energy for lighting in all seasons of the year except for the four darkest months of winter (November, December, January and February) when the afternoon advantage is offset by the need for lighting because of late sunrise.
Of course, the Boston Herald thinks the only good things were the elements that contained more "federal oversight" and more "mandatory standards".
Daylight savings times screws me up for 6 months, then it's time to get screwed up all over again.
This must be a plan to keep us unbalanced. Farmers have electricity now, darn it.
I guess being in Northwest North Dakota, I have a latitude bias. By winter, it will only be daylight from about 8:30 AM to 6 PM, in summer, dawn comes around 5 AM and dark as late as 11:30 PM. To me, changing the time change is just a pain in the hindparts, compounded by living in one time zone and (mostly) working in another.
Executives from ARCO have admitted under oath that it was the petrochemical industry that pushed MTBE in the first place, as a response to the first oxygenate proposal from ADM (using ethanol). The oil industry's major stockholders have used their tax-exempt "charitable" foundations to fund the Natural Resource Defense Council as a front to get preferential regulations through government agencies. Their lawyers, hired as administrators, are particularly culpable, David Donager in EPA and Mary Nichols at the California Air Resources Board.
The oil companies knew MTBE carried a threat of groundwater contamination as a result of a spill in 1980 in Rockaway, NJ. That's the Congress indemnified the oil companies in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by "the Environmental President," George Herbert Walker Bush.
So why not start school an hour later.....Solves the problem.
I understand what you're saying, and I'm no enviro-wacko, but in all honesty setting clocks back is not much of a burden if it saves this much energy.
And this saves what???
What a guy.
I hadnt considered kids going to school. Here they are already waiting at bus stops in the dark.
Im not in favor of changing clocks at all. When Daylight Saving was introduced in 1918 - most factories depended on skylights for lighting. It aint that way now.
> So why not start school an hour later.....Solves the problem.
Many parents have to go to work. So start work an hour later :) Now we're back to Standard Time!
Who benefits? The recreatational industry. Stuff like golf courses, tennis courts, people who manufacture stuff for these industries. More time after work means more people will use these facilities and spend more money on them.
My family at home has to deal with all the changes, though.
Who benefits? The recreatational industry.
My family at home has to deal with all the changes, though.
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