‘Spring Forward’ This Sunday: The Latest Updates on Daylight Saving Time Legislation

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Daylight saving time starts at 2:00 am on Sunday, March 10, 2024, which means it’s time to ‘spring forward.’

Will this be the last year we ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’? Lawmakers have pushed for several years to put an end to the bi-annual changing of the clocks but it seems unlikely that enacting permanent daylight saving time will happen anytime soon.

The Tennessee General Assembly has supported the end of daylight saving time and in March of 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 to make the change permanent.

A year later on March 2, 2023, Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced the bill that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent, stating that the ‘ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid.’

However, so far in 2024, there has been no movement with the Sunshine Protection Act.

The U.S. first adopted daylight saving time in 1918 to save oil and electricity during World War I, reports nbcnews. But now, this isn’t the case.

A 2011 study found that daylight saving actually cost Indiana households an extra $9 million per year in electricity bills because they spent more on heating and cooling, even though people used lights less, adds nbcnews.

Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only states that do not ‘spring forward’ or ‘fall back.’ Other U.S. territories, like Puerto Rico, follow permanent standard time also.

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