Sun
Feb 16 2014
12:42 am
What time is it? Ask someone in Halifax.
By: Somebody

In another asinine move, the state legislature is pushing forward with a bill to withdraw Tennessee from the practice of shifting clocks back and forth from standard time to daylight savings time. The kicker? The plan is just to lock into daylight saving time this summer and never go back. This would mean that this time next year, our clocks would be marching in lock step with Halifax, Nova Scotia. That's right, folks. If this bill goes through, then next fall when New York and North Carolina set their clocks back an hour, Knoxville will be effectively handing in our Eastern Time Zone card and joining Atlantic Standard Time. (By the way, if the bill passes, East Tennessee will be the only place in the United States operating in that time zone. Negative economic impact? No, of course not.)

Of course, before anyone in the legislature gets the moronic idea that the bill should just be amended to have us all drop daylight savings time, they should realize that that would result in Nashville spending all summer adjusting their clocks according to Denver, Colorado's daily schedule. Yep. That's right.

Topics:
peixao's picture

Aren't there estimates of

Submitted by peixao on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 1:48am.

Aren't there estimates of savings in energy costs, productivity, and whatnot associated with DST? Didn't Bush adjust their spot on the calendar to claim a number of savings that probably justified the elimination of conservation measures? I wish we could get it broken down by states, and then club these maroons with the number. Wish they knew shame.

zoomfactor's picture

CBA takes a holiday

Submitted by zoomfactor on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 4:05pm.
(in reply to peixao)

Funny how the idea of "cost benefit analyses" is totally forgotten when addressing this legislation while CBA is championed as a tool to justify not spending money on climate change. The reason is this: you could actually come up with costs and benefits pretty easily for this decision. Harder for wackos to come up with a plausible rebuttal.

jbr's picture

12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Daylight Saving Time

Submitted by jbr on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 1:51am.

From US News …

9. Two states—Arizona and Hawaii—and four U.S. territories—American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—don't observe daylight saving time. Indiana adopted DST in 2006.

12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Daylight Saving Time

PhilK's picture

What Republicans DO know:

Submitted by PhilK (not verified) on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 8:29am.
(in reply to jbr)

There's no mention of Daylight Savings Time in the Bible, so don't expect Republicans to let Satan tell you what time it is.

Rachel's picture

Why don't they just pass a

Submitted by Rachel on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 1:52am.

Why don't they just pass a law to make pi=3 while they're at it?

bizgrrl's picture

In some slow manner, is the

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 7:04am.

In some slow manner, is the state preparing for seccession?

As I said when Joe Powell mentioned this bill, could be a pain for people who daily have to do business out of state. Trying to keep track of the time to deal with customers in different time zones is hard enough. Imagine what it would be like to be only one state in the area that is basically in a different time zone.

Why do our Tennessee legislatures insist on wasting the state's time and money?

Anonymous1's picture

We're definitely in our own

Submitted by Anonymous1 on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 10:17am.

We're definitely in our own "zone," so to speak.

fischbobber's picture

Who knows what they're thinking?

Submitted by fischbobber on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 11:35am.

These are good ideas?

It did remind me of this though, so there's that.

(link...)

Brian A.'s picture

So, no turning the clock back

Submitted by Brian A. on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 1:06pm.

So, no turning the clock back in the fall?

I like the idea.

Anonymous1's picture

Nationally, is one thing;

Submitted by Anonymous1 on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 5:52pm.
(in reply to Brian A.)

Nationally, is one thing; just state wide? Uh uh.

Brian A.'s picture

I'm an afternoon/evening

Submitted by Brian A. on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 10:54am.
(in reply to Anonymous1)

I'm an afternoon/evening person and hate the early sunsets in the winter.

Obviously this has to be a national change, not just Tennessee.

Somebody's picture

Obviously this has to be a

Submitted by Somebody on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 11:09am.
(in reply to Brian A.)

Obviously this has to be a national change, not just Tennessee.

...and that's the complaint about the yokels in the legislature. The fact that this even got to a committee vote, with legislators not having even the remotest inkling that they would be shifting East Tennessee to the Atlantic time zone, is mind boggling. It is indicative of the blinders-on, self-centered Tea Party worldview. The willful disregard for how the world inter-relates and functions would be comedic if it wasn't so consistent. This is the same sort of Luddite attitude that Ted Cruz exercised once again last week as he attempted yet again to filibuster and derail the debt ceiling vote. These people have their heads shoved so far up the right-wing echo chamber, it doesn't even occur to them to consider the real-world effects of their "ideas."

CE Petro's picture

I'm with Brian. I HATE (with

Submitted by CE Petro on Sun, 2014/02/16 - 8:23pm.
(in reply to Brian A.)

I'm with Brian. I HATE (with a major passion) turning my clocks back and forth. It seriously play havoc with my internal clock for weeks. One way or the other -- no DST or always DST -- I don't much care which.

If you work with national or international customers you should already have their time zone programmed in someplace so you know the appropriate times to contact said customer, since not ALL countries or states follow DST (for some countries, DST changes are not the same time as in the US). If you don't know if another country or state follows DST, then you probably shouldn't be in business.

R. Neal's picture

My concern is that staying on

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 9:47am.

My concern is that staying on DST means an extra hour of sunlight every day. This could contribute to global warming.

Anyway, why couldn't the whole world have one time zone and we all operate on UTC worldwide?

It would be confusing for a while with people having to adjust to local sunrise/sunset times. But it would make scheduling simpler. Even though businesses, schools and government office would open at different times across the country, it would be the same time everywhere in the world. If you scheduled a conference call for 17:00Z it would be at 17:00Z whether you were in East TN or Nebraska. American Idol would come on at 01:00Z everywhere in America (unless it is delayed for the West Coast?). Your flight would leave at 14:00Z and arrive at 16:00Z regardless of the departure and arrival cities. I think the planet could adjust.

Haven't thought about what it means for the effective date of official documents, events, etc., though. I guess they would all be as of the date in Greenwich at the time of execution. New Year's celebrations would be at 00:00Z around the world, which would be our former 7:00PM which works for me because I have a hard time staying up until "midnight" anyway.

OK, I'm getting confused already. But it could work.

Anonymous1's picture

we all operate on UTC

Submitted by Anonymous1 on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 10:36am.
(in reply to R. Neal)

we all operate on UTC worldwide?

That'll get the locals to buy into it.

Brian A.'s picture

Anyway, why couldn't the

Submitted by Brian A. on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 10:55am.
(in reply to R. Neal)

Anyway, why couldn't the whole world have one time zone and we all operate on UTC worldwide?

I agree with this.

People would fuss about it being confusing, but how can it possibly be more confusing than the system we have today?

redmondkr's picture

"Anyway, why couldn't the

Submitted by redmondkr on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 1:14pm.
(in reply to R. Neal)


"Anyway, why couldn't the whole world have one time zone and we all operate on UTC worldwide?"

Exactly!

But our Tenn-nuts would associate that move with Agenda 21.

R. Neal's picture

Also, while they're at it the

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 10:18am.

Also, while they're at it the state legislature should opt out of the controversial leap second adjustment.

It's an artificial federal mandate based on the government's pointy headed scientists supposedly measuring the frequency of an atom's vibrations. (Next I guess they'll be measuring how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.)

Not only is it made up, it doesn't even match the Earth's actual rotation period, which is variable and isn't always exactly 24 hours according to the same pointy headed scientiests.

Clearly there is controversy about the science, so the safe thing to do is reject it.

Mello's picture

?

Submitted by Mello on Mon, 2014/02/17 - 10:38am.

Isn't this just a way to get Nashville out of Central time and into the Eastern timezone and the eastern part of the state just be damned??

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