Last year in Colorado, Gov. Polis signed into law a bill that would put the state on permanent Daylight Saving Time. Hurray! But there’s a hitch (isn’t there always?). Federal law must be changed to allow it. (Federal law currently allows a state to permanently stay on standard time, but not on daylight saving time. Go figure.)
Also last year, the U.S. Senate voted to make DST permanent, but the House of Representatives did not go along. And that still wouldn’t be enough for Colorado. At least four other states sharing the Mountain Time Zone must also vote for permanent DST. To date only three (Utah, Wyoming, and Montana) have done so. Or something like that. It’s complicated. And not likely to get sorted out any time soon.
So once again we are about to change our clocks. Tomorrow night, not tonight. Ugh. And although we are “springing forward” an hour to DST, it will only last until November. Then we’ll have to “fall back.” (Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t participate in time switching and have permanently opted out of DST.)
Interestingly, Colorado’s multibillion-dollar ski industry opposed DST for years because, apparently, they thought it would deprive them of an hour of operation each day in January and February. (I had to think about that one for a while.)
Did I mention it’s complicated? Axios may have explained it better. They note that 23 states have legislation pending to make DST permanent … while 15 states are considering making standard time permanent. Oh, joy.
Personally, sunset at 4:30ish mountain standard time really bums me out. But mostly I just want to not have to keep changing. I do have one clock that, after being wrong all winter because I neglected to reset it last fall, will be right again without my touching it. But at least half a dozen others will be wrong and not all of them will be automatically reset via internet magic. I’ll still have to manually reset the microwave clock, the stove, a back-up alarm clock, the car …
Hoo boy.
