Written by Paul DailIn October of 2014, two Utah politicians, Sen. Aaron Osmond and Rep. Perry, made headlines (including here at The Independent) when they proposed a change to the current system of daylight savings time in Utah. Recent news has indicated that at least one of these proposals is at least temporarily off the table. However, I stand firmly in agreement that it is time to end daylight savings (see what I did there?).
I’m not alone in this sentiment. In March of 2014, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development conducted a study on the issue which included several hearings as well as an online survey. Of the more than 27,000 respondents who took the survey, approximately 85 percent of Utahns stated they wanted to see some change from the current system, with 67 percent saying they favored keeping Mountain Standard Time all year and another 18 percent preferring daylight savings time all year. The Independent ran its own poll which showed almost identical results.
Only 15 percent of those polled by the state’s survey preferred keeping the current system. You’ll never guess who the biggest opponents are to keeping Mountain Standard Time year-round. Go ahead, take a swing. (*shields self from barrage of golf balls*)
According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, keeping daylight savings time all year (something the outdoor enthusiasts would prefer if there has to be any change) is technically against Federal law. Sen. Osmond thought he could get tricky with HCR 1 by changing Utah to be on Central Time Zone, but while the Senate Government Operations Committee didn’t kill the bill outright, they did vote to send it back to the Rules Committee. Sorry, golfers.
And honestly, that was a little crazy, right? As the Tribune article pointed out, this would be a traveler’s nightmare. Imagine going on a road trip from the Midwest to say, Las Vegas. Set your clock back when you cross from Central into Mountain Time Zone, set it forward again crossing from Colorado into Utah, then back again going into Nevada, except two hours this time.
However, Rep. Perry’s HB 187 to keep Utah on Mountain Time Zone year-round, the choice favored by the majority of those polled by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, is still on the table. Go, Perry!
Honestly, I would be fine with either proposal, Federal law and roadtrippers be damned. As a parent of young children, I dread the arrival of that Saturday night/Sunday morning every November and March when my children’s schedule is thrown completely out of whack (which means my schedule is thrown completely out of whack), and even though accident statistics during the days following the switch have been shown to be a minor factor, it still affects your mental health when that sun finally returns on your drive to work after a long winter, only to have it yanked away again in March.
I can understand—also as a parent—the concern with keeping daylight savings time year round in that it means some pretty dark and potentially icy mornings for the kiddos to be walking to school. This is why I say that if there’s a choice, just listen to Rep. Perry. Leave Utah at Mountain Time Zone. If Arizona and Hawaii can do it (and there are whisperings that if we change, Idaho may follow suit), then so can we.
While we’re talking about other states, what about Arizona? Certainly they have golfers and outdoor enthusiasts also, and in the summer, being farther south than Utah, they even get a little less light than we do. According to SunriseSunset.com, at the summer solstice, St. George gets almost 30 more minutes of light per day than Tucson, 24 of which are before sunset. Yet somehow, Arizona’s golf industry still continues to thrive.
The majority has spoken, and I think it’s time the Utah legislators listened (hey, look. I did it again. You know, “it’s time”?).
Paul D. Dail received his BFA in English with a Creative Writing emphasis from the University of Montana, Missoula. In addition to freelance journalism and web content creation, he also enjoys writing creative nonfiction and fiction (with a penchant for the darker side of the page). His collection of flash fiction, “Free Five,” has spent over a year and a half in the top 50 Kindle Horror Shorts Stories since its publication in 2012. Currently he lives on the outskirts of Kanarraville, surrounded by the sagebrush and pinyon junipers, with his wife and two children. Read more about Paul at www.pauldail.com. While he prefers that any comments directed at a specific article be posted in a public forum, he welcomes all other correspondence at [email protected]
