Proposed Ohio Bill Would Make Daylight Savings Time Permanent

A bill proposed by a couple of Ohio Republican state senators would end the annual flip flop of springing ahead and falling back by leaving Ohio permanently on Daylight Savings Time, thus ridding the Buckeye state of a weird temporal vestige whose origins date back to a New Zealand entomologist and postal worker named George Hudson, who proposed the idea so he could spend more daylight hours hunting insects, and which found domestic implementation through the World Wars and then uniformity with the Universal Time Act of 1966 and the energy crisis of the 1970s.

Does the bill, introduced by state senators Kristina Roegner and Bob Peterson, have any chance of passing? Probably not but it's possible.

About a dozen states have considered bills to create a year-round clock, with some proposing they stay on standard time and some proposing staying on Daylight Savings Time. None have passed, though momentum to scuttle the infuriating, pointless and dumb ritual has grown. Arizona and Hawaii have never observed DST and Indiana didn't until 2006.

Arguments regarding health, traffic accidents, crime and energy savings come down on both sides, and both sides don't have much evidence to go on. Some studies say there's slight energy use reduction with DST, and some studies say there's actually a slight energy use increase.

Of the two options, sticking with permanent Daylight Savings Time, essentially making it the new standard time, is the far superior option and no one can make a cogent argument otherwise. Who cares about sunshine in the morning? Who wants to walk out of work to a dark world that further enforces the lingering sense of dread and depression you've cultivated through the day?

So send some good sunshine mojo toward Senate Bill 119 — the Ohio Sunshine Protection Act — and hope that Ohio can lead the charge on a sweeping campaign to do the right thing.

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