SC will still observe dreaded time change, despite vote on Daylight Saving. Here’s why
If you are among the South Carolinians who were happy when the South Carolina General Assembly voted last year to keep Daylight Saving Time year-round, well, then this weekend is not your favorite time.
That’s because Eastern Standard Time roars in with a vengeance officially at 2 a.m. Nov. 7, ushering in those all-too-early dark nights.
The reason? Congress has not approved South Carolina’s request to stay permanently on Daylight Saving Time. (Some people, like Benjamin Franklin did, say “savings time,” which is not grammatically correct.)
State Rep. Bill Chumley, a Republican who lives in Woodruff, said South Carolina can actually get around the Congress-must-say-yes situation by appealing to the U.S. Department of Transportation for special dispensation to remain on Daylight Saving Time.
He has proposed a bill to do just that.
But the request has to be made while Daylight Saving Time is in effect, though that won’t be happening in the next few days.
Chumley said his bill has been sidelined by the Legislature’s focus on the pandemic and other pressing matters.
But he still thinks it’s a good idea.
“It saves lives, energy,” he said. “Studies have shown it is all beneficial.”
All states except Hawaii and Arizona observe Daylight Saving Time.
It was implemented in the United States March 31, 1918, as a wartime measure, and repealed the next year. It was reinstated in 1966 after many confusing years of different jurisdictions being on different time periods.
The History Channel in its “8 things you may not know about Daylight Saving Time” put it this way:
“States and localities could start and end daylight saving whenever they pleased, a system that Time magazine (an aptly named source) described in 1963 as ‘a chaos of clocks.’ In 1965 there were 23 different pairs of start and end dates in Iowa alone, and St. Paul, Minnesota, even began daylight saving two weeks before its twin city, Minneapolis. Passengers on a 35-mile bus ride from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, passed through seven time changes.”
The 1966 Uniform Time Act set Daylight Saving Time as the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. It has since been extended.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says 19 states have called for year-round Daylight Saving Time. And U.S Sen. Marco Rubio perpetually proposes a nationwide Daylight Saving Time, but the bill is stuck in committee.
Farmers like Chumley benefit from the longer sunlight hours, but the real proponents? Retailers. More shopping hours.
