Time change 2021: Clocks change this weekend. Lehigh Valley lawmaker proposes permanent daylight saving time - lehighvalleylive.com

It’s a matter of time.

We change clocks tonight and “spring ahead” one hour for the start of daylight saving time, which every year starts at 2 a.m. the second Sunday in March. On the first Sunday of November, this year Nov. 7, another time change shifts us back one hour into standard time.

But what if there is no “fall back” this year?

Pennsylvania state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh, Berks) in January reintroduced a bill in Harrisburg that would make daylight saving time permanent year-round, letting the state keep the lighter evenings and ditching the biannual clock change.

“Twice a year, Pennsylvanians are subject to adding unnecessary stress to our lives by changing our clocks between daylight saving time (DST) and standard time,” Mackenzie wrote in a state House memo ahead of the bill’s introduction. The measure was referred to the State Government Committee on Jan. 29.

Up in the clock tower of First United Church of Christ in Easton in 2020, Mike Elderhorst, right, and his son Matt, of Elderhorst Bells Inc., put the clock hands on the face of the clock before installing them. Daylight saving time 2021 begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 14, when we "spring ahead" one hour.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

Similar legislation has been proposed before. Even if approved, the bill still requires the federal government to grant permission for states to make the change.

Two bipartisan bills, each called the “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021,” have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate, though, again, similar measures have been proposed before. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley, in 2020 cosponsored an identical bill in the previous Congressional session.

At least 15 states have already adopted a measure to make daylight saving time permanent, pending Congress’s OK, according to a news release from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. Mackenzie based his Pennsylvania bill on one approved in Florida in 2018.

Mackenzie told lehighvalleylive.com that the Pennsylvania bill is scheduled to move out of committee soon.

“Following permanent daylight saving time has been shown to reduce car accidents, decrease strokes, lessen energy usage, and diminish obesity,” Mackenzie said in a statement through a spokesperson. “A discussion on this topic is timely because it will be freshly on my colleague’s minds with the time change approaching this weekend.”

Mike Elderhorst, of Elderhorst Bells Inc., installs a new clock face in the tower of First United Church of Christ in Easton in 2020. Daylight saving time 2021 begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 14.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

Daylight saving time does not actually change the amount of daylight, just when we observe it. The annual spring time change pushing clocks ahead one hour gives the appearance of longer evenings, as opposed to standard time, which has brighter mornings. Despite its name, standard time is only in effect four months of the year.

The concept of daylight saving time is sometimes – but wrongly – attributed to farmers. Ben Franklin is also credited with the idea because he sarcastically wrote that people could save money on candles if they just woke up with the sun.

Germany was the first county to establish a daylight saving time law in 1916 to conserve resources during World War I. Other countries followed suit.

The first U.S. law on daylight saving time took effect in 1918 and was standardized in 1966. Congress last altered it in 2005, expanding daylight saving time by four weeks.

Observation of daylight saving time is not uniform domestically or abroad. At least portions of some 70 countries observe daylight saving time, but when they start and end varies. In the U.S., Hawaii and most of Arizona opt out of the clock change, along with the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Still, for those of us in and around the Lehigh Valley, the clocks will change overnight. Whether or not they change again in the fall, well, time will tell.

The First United Church of Christ steeple and clock tower is unveiled during a lighting ceremony in 2020. Clocks change and "spring ahead" one hour for daylight saving time at 2 a.m. Sunday. Daylight saving time remains in effect until the first Sunday in November.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Time change 2021: Clocks change this weekend. Lehigh Valley lawmaker proposes permanent daylight saving time - lehighvalleylive.com
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