“It is time to retire this World War I era antique” Combs said. “Daylight Savings Time is a perfect example of a government policy far outliving its usefulness and continuing simply because that’s the way it has always been done. While it may have made sense when the government was fighting a war, it has no place in a modern world. Nowadays, all it does is inconvenience people twice a year.”
Under the federal Uniform Time Act of 1966, a state can move off daylight savings by passing legislation at the state level.
Currently, the states of Hawaii and Arizona, as well as all the American insular territories (Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) do not use Daylight Savings Time. In recent years, efforts have been put forth in Alaska, Colorado and Florida to eliminate the time change.
Originally put forth as a wartime conservation effort to save fuel by reducing the use of artificial lighting, recently doubts have grown about the effectiveness of Daylight Savings Time in saving energy, according to Combs.
Studies done by the National Bureau of Standards have found no discernible energy savings from the time shift. As a result of examining utility bills in jurisdictions that have moved back and forth between daylight savings and year-long standard time have actually shown that the time shift increased electricity consumption.
Combs, who cannot run for re-election to his seat due to term limits, said throughout his career people have asked him why the state still has daylight savings time, and have complained that it is confusing.
“It really no longer serves a purpose,” said Combs, who noted that farmers today already often are working after dark on equipment with lights.
“I am going to see what kind of feeling we get,” Combs said. “If we get a good response I will be reaching out to surrounding states to create one Eastern Standard time year round.”
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