I walked the dog by flashlight this morning. That’s because, in my area of the world, the sun didn’t rise until 7:34 a.m. ET.
Of course, next Friday will be different. We will officially “fall back” one hour on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, at 2 a.m. local time, as Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends. That should mean that next week, it will be light out closer to 6:30 a.m. ET (though, of course, as my husband reminded me, that means it will be dark earlier—sunset is slated for 4:52 p.m. ET).
But why does the switch happen at all? And why does it happen on November 3 this year?
Background
Before 1966, laws setting dates for DST were somewhat fluid. The United States officially adopted DST during World War I—after Germany did so—but the unpopular law was soon removed. It continued to be observed sporadically in some states until World War II when President Franklin D. Roosevelt again signed temporary DST into law. As before, the law didn’t continue after the war.
That changed in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act into law calling for DST to be streamlined nationally, beginning on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October each year. The dates were tweaked again 20 years later under Ronald Reagan, who amended DST to begin at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and end at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. Just about 20 years later, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which had as its short title, “To ensure jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable energy.” In addition to a number of tax breaks, the law also extended DST by four weeks—that’s why we “fall back” on the first Sunday in November now instead of October.
Beginnings
The beginnings of DST are sometimes credited to Benjamin Franklin. The idea appeared in his 1784 essay, “An Economical Project,” though many are quick to point out that it was considered to be satire. In the essay, Franklin calculates the hours spent burning candles and declares: An immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.
Energy Policy
Whether Franklin actually inspired DST in the U.S. may be a matter of debate, but it’s clear that the underlying concept is what drives DST today. It’s all about energy policy and money. That’s contrary to popular opinion, which suggests DST was adopted in America in order to accommodate farmers. In fact, according to Tufts University professor Michael Downing, “That’s the complete inverse of what’s true. The farmers were the only organized lobby against daylight saving in the history of the country.” Why? Among other reasons, it left them with an hour less sunlight to get crops to market.
Instead, the DST has been linked to energy policy and saving money, often accompanied by tax changes. The Energy Policy Act of 2005—the one that extended the DST—was no exception. The Act took several years to nail down, largely because of a controversy over whether energy policy should favor fossil fuels or solar and wind power. The resulting energy policy incentives were to be implemented through a mishmash of new rules and tax credits.
Tax Credits
One popular tax credit in the 2005 Act was for fuel-efficient vehicles (conventional hybrid vehicles). The credit, which allowed tax breaks on qualifying vehicles, expired in 2010. Today, if you buy a new plug-in electric vehicle (EV) or fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in 2023 or later, you may qualify for a clean vehicle tax credit of up to $7,500—the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 changed the rules for this credit for vehicles purchased from 2023 to 2032.
The 2005 Act also proposed a federal tax credit for residential energy-efficient properties and energy-efficiency improvements to residential homes, including the purchase of certain doors, windows, insulation, and the like. Incentives still exist, but the residential energy-efficient property credit is now the residential clean energy credit and allows a 30% credit for property placed in service in 2022 through 2032. The nonbusiness energy property credit is now the energy-efficient home improvement credit and is extended to properties placed in service through December 31, 2032.
Tax credits often “sweeten the deal” for other policy initiatives, which is likely why the DST was extended as part of the 2005 Act. The idea behind the extension was that, by extending daylight hours, we would also cut energy consumption. If the day seems longer because it’s light out longer, it should follow that there would be less demand for electricity in the evenings. But that may not be true: It may actually cost us money.
Calls For Change
While studies indicate a slight change in demand in the evenings, some studies have indicated that any savings are offset by more energy demand in the morning. And you can’t count out the time spent changing clocks. In 2010, Utah State University economist William F. Shughart II suggested that turning the clocks forward and backward each year results in $1.7 billion of lost opportunity cost each year in the U.S. alone. His calculations assumed that each person over the age of 18 spent about 10 minutes changing clocks instead of doing something more productive. Of course, in a digital-centric world, that number should go down. Should. But when I try to figure out which clocks inside my home actually have the right time, I’m not so sure that’s the case.
Many Americans don’t see the benefit of DST. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a whopping 63% of Americans favor eliminating seasonal time changes. There are lots of reasons, including better emotional health: A team of researchers from the departments of psychiatry and political science at the universities of Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Stanford found that the time shift appears to be closely linked to a jump in depression diagnoses. It may even cost us hard cash. According to a study by JPMorgan Chase, economic activity drops 2.2% when clocks move back.
Still, most of the country continues to observe DST. Hawaii and Arizona (except for residents of the Navajo Nation) are outliers, as are the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
By law, states have the right to opt out. In 2018, a Florida bill to nix DST in the state, the Sunshine Protection Act, passed (33-2) and was approved by then-governor Rick Scott. The problem? By federal law, the state still requires approval from the feds, and that didn’t happen.
In 2018, three Florida legislators (Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Representative Vern Buchanan) introduced a federal law, also called the Sunshine Protection Act, to make DST permanent all year. If passed, the legislation would apply to states that participate in DST, which most states observe for eight months out of the year. The bill has been introduced in every Congress since 2018, including in March 2023, but it hasn’t yet passed.
While most Americans appear to support eliminating the shift, they’re not sold on the path forward. Having DST year-round would mean later sunrises and sunsets while keeping standard time year-round would result in earlier sunrises and sunsets. Which is the better result?
For now, the time shift remains in place. So that means I’ll see you back here next year around the same time—assuming I finally get all of my clocks set.
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