Daylight saving time happens at 2 a.m. on March 10 this year. It’s that yearly ritual where we spring forward and lose an hour of sleep so we can gain an hour of daylight in the evenings. Researchers say that extra hour of sunshine saves lives on the roadways, reduces crime, increases leisure activity and may save a little electricity.
There are two bills in the Washington State legislature that would make daylight saving time year-round. In California, voters passed a measure in November that would allow the legislature to make DST year-round there. A similar effort is also underway in Oregon.
The revolt against falling back and springing forward is not limited to the West: A bill that would keep Florida on daylight saving time passed the state legislature and is awaiting congressional approval, and farmers in Massachusetts two years ago pushed that state to explore moving to the Atlantic time zone.
Anxiety about daylight saving time is new. Implemented first during World War One as a means of saving energy, and then revived during World War Two, daylight saving time wasn’t widely adopted until the late 1960s. Since then only Arizona and Hawaii have opted out of the change.
But western states are now poised to make the biggest impact in this debate. California, Oregon, and Washington make up a large and symbolic clump of the U.S., and although none of the states have made it all the way through the congressional process to make daylight saving year round, there is new consensus that they should.
This segment originally aired March 8, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.