Daylight Savings Permanent? 19 States Pushing To Keep DST As Standard Time

As 2023's first daylight saving time (DST) change approaches, the debate on whether the biannual change should be permanent has once again come to light.

At least 19 states are reportedly pushing to keep daylight saving time permanent through legislation or resolutions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

The states have reportedly enacted legislation or passed resolutions for year-round daylight saving time. However, Congress is yet to act, stalling the states' implementation of the changes.

"The 19 states are Colorado (2022), Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi and Montana (2021), Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio (resolution), South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming (2020). Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington (2019), Florida (2018) [and] California," the NCSL enumerated.

Legislative action for California is currently pending even after voters authorized the change, the agency said. Meanwhile, states such as Massachusetts and Maine commissioned studies on the topic in 2017 and 2021, respectively.

"Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands observe permanent standard time," the organization added.

For this year, daylight saving time will begin at 2 a.m. on March 12.

Last year, the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, seeking to make daylight saving time permanent year-round across all states. However, the House of Representatives is yet to act on it.

"There's some strong science behind it that is now showing and making people aware of the harm that clock-switching has," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who introduced the bill to the Senate, said in March, as quoted by NBC News.

The states of Kentucky and Mississippi have also urged Congress and the president, through resolutions, to permanently adopt DST by passing the Sunshine Protection Act, per NCSL.

A 2020 study published by Cell Press found that traffic accidents in the U.S. increased by 6% a week after the implementation of spring DST.

"Effects are exacerbated in the morning and by living in western regions of time zones," the study stated. "Although the observed effects are of moderate size, yearly DST transition affects billions of individuals, and thus small changes in MVA risk might have a substantial public health effect."

"Our results support the theory that abolishing time changes completely would improve public health and reduce geographical health disparities, as observed in our time zone analysis."