Daylight Saving Time is slated to begin March 11 this year, two weeks earlier than usual; a fact that has the potential to cause time mismatches across the nation. The change is part of President George W. Bush’s 2005 Energy Policy Act, which he called a first step toward a more affordable and reliable energy future for U.S. citizens.
Bush said he hopes that moving DST will save energy, but Tom Welch, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy, said there is no evidence that the change will increase energy efficiency.
Welch added that a report completed last fall found the potential for energy conservation to be fairly negligible.
“Consider this an experiment that Congress thinks is worthy of making,” Welch said. “We’ll find out after the fact whether it was a wise move.”
Energy aside, changing the dates of DST could have other effects on the nation.
“For most people and for a lot of companies the effect of this will be forgetting to change the clock,” said Dave Thewlis, executive director of the national Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium.
Computers and other technology are programmed to make the time change automatically-a quandary that has earned the DST change the nickname “mini Y2K.”
“There are industries where the implications of mismatched time would be more significant,” Thewlis said. “The financial world, hospitals and the airline industry could all be more severely affected.”
He added that if the change does not proceed smoothly, airlines may find their timetables off, and financial sectors may have difficulties successfully completing transactions such as international fund transfers.
Welch said there may be other downsides as well. Some children might have to go to school in the dark, there may be more traffic accidents or there could be an increase in crime, he said.
Spokespeople from both Microsoft and Apple said the problem in computers will be remedied through an automatic update system or, for customers with older systems, through a downloadable patch that will perform the same function as an automatic update.
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6 Responses
To think that this will save any energy is one of the stupidest things that I have heard. What they should do is raise the gasoline tax to make it $3.50 a gallon and simultaneously lower the social security tax. Then watch the price of oil go way down and thereby put less money into terrorist supporting countries.
it will still be very cool to have the extra daytime for two extra months each year. Remember that next shabbos candle lighting time is around 6:45!!
There has been no credible evidence that the introductin of DST many years ago has lived up to initial expectations and saved any energy. Adding two weeks to DST and expecting it to make any dent in energy usage is a pipe dream.
For the record we used to change the clock the first Sunday in April, making it actually 3 weeks earlier.
George W. will go down in history, as the first time in 20 years that a president actually did something. No it will not solve any energy problems, but….. he still did something….
Among other issues, this will cause:
1. Children waiting for school buses in the dark mornings for 3 extra weeks.
2. Early Shacharis minyanim impossible or delayed.