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As I See It

Is it time to adopt year-round daylight saving time?

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Is it time to stop resetting our clocks twice a year? Currently we go back and forth between standard time and daylight-saving time, springing ahead in the spring and falling back in the fall. Some think that is unnecessary, and now the United States Senate has passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent. If approved by the House and signed by the President, we wouldn’t have to change our clocks twice per year, and we would enjoy an extra hour of afternoon sunshine in the winter, boosting the economy by encouraging people to shop, eat out and be active. But while there may be some benefits to adopting a year-round daylight saving-time, there are drawbacks too. If we adopted daylight saving-time year-round, the sun wouldn’t come up until after 8am in the winter in the northern part of the country, where children would be going to school in the dark. Standard time doesn’t really give us an extra hour of sunlight, it only switches it from the morning until the afternoon. And let’s not forget that in 1974 during the oil crisis, Congress adopted what was to be permanent daylight saving-time as a way to save energy. Nobody liked it, and within just months the measure was repealed. Our current system of switching back and forth twice a year may not be perfect, but it may be the best we can do.

Scott Robert Shaw serves as WIZM Program Director and News Director, and delivers the morning news on WKTY, Z-93 and 95.7 The Rock. Scott has been at Mid-West Family La Crosse since 1989, and authors Wisconsin's only daily radio editorial, "As I See It" heard on WIZM each weekday morning and afternoon.

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