State Rep. Rodney Creech
Columbus, Ohio – The House State and Local Government Committee yesterday passed House Concurrent Resolution 7, announced State Reps. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria) and Bob Peterson (R-Sabina), sponsors of the resolution.
H.C.R 7 will urge Congress to enact the Sunshine Uniformity Act of 2023, permanently transitioning the state to Daylight Saving Time.
“Switching to daylight saving time would increase the hours of sunlight in the evenings year-round and could help combat some mental health issues from the darker winter evenings we currently have on standard time,” said Creech. “I’m thankful for the support from committee members on this resolution.
Under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states have the freedom to change to standard time, but not daylight-saving time. This specific change requires a change to federal law to transition to perpetual daylight-saving time.
“Research has shown an increase in automobile accidents the Monday after shifting to daylight saving time due to sleep deprivation,” said Peterson. “The most common cause of death in children under 15 is unintentional injury, and the most common cause of unintentional injury is car accidents. If permanent daylight saving time is one way to reduce car accidents and increase our children’s safety, it certainly deserves our consideration.”
H.C.R. 7 now moves to the House floor for a vote.
_______________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Franklin published the proverb “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”, and published a letter in the Journal de Paris during his time as an American envoy to France (1776–1785) suggesting that Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise.
It is a common myth in the United States that DST was first implemented for the benefit of farmers. In reality, farmers have been one of the strongest lobbying groups against DST since it was first implemented. The factors that influence farming schedules, such as morning dew and dairy cattle‘s readiness to be milked, are ultimately dictated by the sun, so the time change introduces unnecessary challenges.
DST was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources. Year-round DST, or “War Time“, was implemented again during World War II. After the war, local jurisdictions were free to choose if and when to observe DST until the Uniform Time Act which standardized DST in 1966. Permanent daylight saving time was enacted for the winter of 1974, but there were complaints of children going to school in the dark and working people commuting and starting their work day in pitch darkness during the winter months, and it was repealed a year later.
