OKLAHOMA CITY – Just a couple of weeks ago, state Rep. Kevin West launched an all-out assault on what he considered a dangerous enemy: daylight saving time.
West’s plan was simple: let the people of Oklahoma vote on a state question that would reject a one-hour time change and, instead, create a concept known as Central Standard Time.
“The measure rejects the adoption of daylight saving time in this state and mandates the state operate on standard time,” language in West’s bill says. “The measure allows future legislative action regarding the rejection of daylight saving time. Central Standard Time in Oklahoma shall begin on November 8, 2022.”
West, R-Moore, said the proposal was needed to do away with the yearly clock changes and let people have a say in whether or not Oklahoma continues to follow the daylight saving time concept.
“Regardless of how we manipulate the clock, we still have the same number of daylight hours available to us each day,” West said in a media statement about the bill. “This gives the people of Oklahoma the right to decide the time on the clock during which they are observed.”
West’s bill is pretty representative of the anti-DST lobby.
Other Republicans, however, are on the other side of the time-change fence.
Some, including at least one member of the Oklahoma Senate, believe daylight saving time should be permanent.
Late last year state Sen. Nathan Dahm, filed Senate Bill 1103, which created a standard known as Central Daylight Time in Oklahoma. That bill, Dahm said, would make daylight saving time permanent.
“A host of experts and research shows these arbitrary time changes throw off people’s body clocks, disrupting sleep and increasing the risk of health problems including heart attacks, depression and fatigue,” Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, said in a statement when he filed the bill. “It increases the risk of car accidents, and some studies even point to higher crime rates when its dark earlier. It’s time to end this four-month disruption and keep that extra hour of daylight all year long.”
Dahm’s fellow Republicans in the United States Senate agreed.
On March 15 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act. That bill, introduced by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, would essentially make daylight saving time permanent.
“This is one issue that I have been chipping away at for a few years and an issue I have consistently heard from Oklahomans – they are ready to lock the clock,” Lankford told reporters at the time the bill passed. “Today, Oklahomans, parents, dog owners and lovers of daylight are one step closer to not having to deal with springing forward or falling back.”
Still, even with the backing of the United States Senate, making daylight saving time permanent – or for that matter, getting rid of it completely – hasn’t been very successful.
Yet.
It seems that daylight saving time – like taxes and red tape – has been around for a while. Originally proposed by London builder William Willet – no, it wasn’t Benjamin Franklin – the concept of daylight saving time would take advantage of the working daylight hours that were not being used productively.
Willet came up with the idea while riding his horse early one morning. He noticed the shutters on the homes he passed were still closed. After running the numbers, Willet concluded there were almost 210 hours of daylight that were not being used because people were not awake.
Remember this was during the time that you got up with sunup and went to bed at sundown. In an effort to remedy the situation, Willet launched a Waste of Daylight campaign, urging people to set their clocks one hour forward.
Willet’s campaign failed.
But daylight saving time – like unpaid bills and social disease – stuck around.
By 1918 the U.S. had some form of the concept. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act which established the beginning and end dates of daylight saving time.
“The policy debate (over daylight saving time) has many angles,” a posting by the National Conference of State Legislatures notes. “DST was originally enacted as a way to save energy by giving more daylight in the evening hours, but some studies have called into question the degree of energy savings. Other studies have shown negative impacts on people’s health and circadian rhythms because of time changes as well as a higher number of car crashes and workplace injuries in the days after a time change.”
In Oklahoma, however, the debate over daylight saving time isn’t as much about circadian rhythms but more about government control.
“I think it’s a predisposition to distrust the government,” said state historian Bob Blackburn. “I’d call it conservative populism.”
Though Oklahomans, Blackburn said, are quick to respond when there is a crisis, those same people aren’t big on centralized authority – and that includes the authority by the government to tell you how to set your clock.
“Folks are suspicious about the motives,” Blackburn said. “They push back against any expression of that authority. Oklahomans have never liked it when the government tries to exercise control over their daily lives.”
Hence the reason that some lawmakers want DST all year around and others are ready to toss the concept.
As for Rep. West’s and Sen. Dahm’s proposal, the jury is still out. Dahm’s bill never made it out of a Senate Committee. West’s proposal, though, has fared some better. On March 23, it cleared the Oklahoma House on a 53-47 vote and is now on first reading in the Oklahoma Senate.
On the federal level, bill passed by the U.S. Senate is currently languishing in the House of Representatives.
Still, even with the bill’s passage in the House, Rep. West may face an uphill battle in the Oklahoma Senate – and time isn’t on his side.