The US Department of Transportation (DOT) Bureau of Transportation Statisticstells us that before 1883, the US had over 144 different time zones. It was the railroad companies that got together and created a coordinated system of 4 time zones in order to coordinate train scheduling and prevent collisions & missed connections. By 1918, the US Government determined that since development of standardized times was transportation-driven, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was granted full control over the situation. The time zones created by the railroad companies were adopted and a 5th was added to include Alaska. By 2022, the US recognized 9 time zones for US territories:
So when did Daylight Savings Time (DST) come into the picture?
Records indicate Romans incorporated changes in their water clocks to accommodate the longer periods of daylight (their time back then was divided into 2 parts: day and night). By 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested waking up earlier in summer making use of the earlier and longer daylight to save on candle and oil usage.
It was not until 1895 that the first proposal for DST was proposed by George Hudson of New Zealand when he proposed changing the clocks by TWO hours each spring. William Willett proposed British Summer Time in 1907 to save energy by making use of earlier & longer daylight hours. It was not until 1916 that this idea was implemented by British Parliament. 1908 saw the first local implementation of DST in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada. Germany, Austria, and Hungary were the first who implemented DST nationally in 1916. Since the energy crisis in the 1970s, many countries have adopted (and later un-adopted) DST.
US DOT controls the time
In 1966, the DOT was created and tasked with the responsibility of regulating, fostering, and promoting widespread and uniform adoption and observance of standardized time within each time zone.So what is one of the first things the DOT did once they were granted power over time? They applied to Congress to create the UNIFORM TIME ACT OF 1966establishing a permanent system of uniform Daylight Savings Time (DST) with two transitions per year. US States and Territories were granted the right to NOT participate and American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Arizona (excluding the Navajo Nation) decided to NOT participate. The bill was approved with a vote of 292 to 93 and sent to President Lyndon Johnson to be signed into law April 13, 1966.Only the Secretary of Transportation can alter DST provided the proposed adjustment serves the convenience of commerce.
ANP EMERGENCY!!-With the passing of Stefan Stanford, ANP's financial situation has become dire.Without significant contributions, the future of All News PipeLine, and our ability to stay online, is in danger. Anything at allANP readers can do to help usishugely appreciated.)
Which is more important: Commerce or Health?
While DST might be good for commerce, various studies have shown DST is detrimental to your health. This time changehas been shown to disrupt humancircadian rhythms (also reported by the AP),negatively affecting human health in the process. In addition,the yearly DST clock-shifts can increase health risks such as heart attacksand traffic accidents. Rush stories shows an increase risk in heart attack, stroke, hospital admissions, emergency room visits, missed medical appointments, sleep disruption, mood disturbances, suicide, traffic accidents, work absences, stock market volatility, and poor athletic performance as side effect of changing the time. An article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine discusses the chronic effects on sleep and recommends that the process of changing clocks twice a year be halted. Research from the UK is showing that the cost to the health of the population is tremendous.
In addition to being a health risk, DST is also an inconvenience for people as they must remember to change their clocks, keep track of multiple DST rules, disrupts meetings and travel, and can be very expensive. Farmers point out that livestock do NOT change their needs with the change to DST (which anyone with pets knows this first hand).
Who opposes clock changes?
Many states have enacted their own legislation to either end DST or make DST permanent for the entire year; however, CONGRESS has to change federal law to allow it. While the Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows for states to opt out of DST it does NOT grant states the right to make DST permanent. Marco Rubio, our now Secretary of State, advocated for changing the federal law to implement permanent DST under the 2022 Sunshine Protection Act which was stopped by the House. Others are against changing times all together stating that staying on Standard Time (ST) will improve health and safety for people (but the law allows states to choose this option). Others argue that it does not matter which time is used as long as we stop changing times twice a year. Of course, surveys show mixed results when asking people what they want.
Allowing states to decide which time they want to operate in will generate mini zones around the world basically sending us back to the time before 1883. The whole purpose of time zones in the first place was to standardize transportation for commerce. I doubt very much that commerce itself these days is affected much by a 1 hour change in time twice a year. I think the majority of affect is within the people experiencing the change. Machines dont care what time it is. Human bodies do.
For immediate results, convince your state to NOT participate in DST. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reveals that over 750 state bills and resolutions are waiting for congress to act to allow states to opt in to permanent DST. This is easily accomplished and does NOT require a change in the law.
A permanent change to DST would require a change to the Uniform Time Act of 1966 and be approved by the Secretary of Transportation whose only mandated criterion for time is commerce needs NOT human needs.
Fast Company and Timeboth say President Trump and Elon Musk are advocates to make DST permanent. It remains to be seen what the new Secretary of Transportation will do. Fox News Headlines 24/7reported March 7, 2025 that they expect to see action on time changes between now and Nov 2, 2025 before we revert back to Standard Time.However, President Trump says the population is split 50/50 on stopping the time changes or picking a time zone (standard or daylight savings) to be the permanent time, so he is not going to do anything with the time change at this time.
Confused about what time it is and who uses what time in the US?
TheNational Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST)provides a time map showing the current time in every US time zone. It will even tell you if your computer is set to the correct time and if not, by how much your time is off.
What about those who work graveyard shift when DST happens?
requires that employees must becredited with all of the hours actually worked. Therefore, if the employee is in a work situation similar to that described in the above example, he or she worked 7 hours on the day that Daylight Savings Time begins and 9 hours on the day that Daylight Savings Time ends. This assumes, of course, that the employee actually worked the scheduled shift as in our example.
But, if you are a salaried employee, there is no difference in your salary.
When does DST start and end for 2025?
Daylight saving time startson Sunday, March 9, 2025 and will end on Sunday, November 2, 2025.
Why do we change the clock at 2am on a Sunday?
The reason we change clocks at 2am on a Sunday is so there are fewer disruptions to commerce. While most countries change their clocks by one hour, some have changed as little as 30 minutes to as much as 2 hours.
Bottom line?
Remember to set your clocksFORWARD 1 hour at 2am Sunday, March 9, 2025.
ANP is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.
ANP EMERGENCY Fundraiser: Dangerous, Derogatory, Harmful, Unreliable!Those are some of the exact words used by Googles censors, aka 'Orwelliancontent police,' in describing many of our controversial stories.Stories later proven to be truthful and light years ahead of the mainstream media. But because we reported those 'inconvenient truths' they're trying to bankrupt ANP.
