End day light saving time in Washington? New bill aims for year-round PST

A Washington state bill wants to exempt the state from daylight saving time and implement a year-round Pacific Standard Time.

A public hearing was held in the Senate Committee on Tuesday morning. The bill is still in the Senate Committee.

Sen. Jim Honeyford, one of the four sponsors of the bill, said daylight saving time leads to increased traffic accidents, increased crimes, health problems and scheduling complications for agriculture.

"People say, 'Oh that [DST] is for farmers.' Well I was a farmer, you'd get up at daylight and work until it's dark … and [then] get a flashlight or tractor lights, you don't care what the clock is. It's [DST] not for farmers," Honeyford said.

This isn’t the first time a bill in Washington state pitches to eliminate daylight saving time for its residents.

Daylight saving became an official American standard in 1966, and was created to conserve energy. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving.

Quartz writer and economist Allison Schrager spoke to CBSN about an article she wrote on why the US should retire daylight saving and have just two time zones – one hour apart.

"It would seem to be more efficient to do away with the practice altogether," Schrager wrote. "The actual energy savings are minimal, if they exist at all. Frequent and uncoordinated time changes cause confusion, undermining economic efficiency."

Schrager suggests Americans on Eastern Standard Time should set their clocks back one hour (like normal), Americans on Central and Rocky Mountain time do nothing, and Americans on Pacific time should set their clocks forward one hour.

The bill advises Washington state stay on PST throughout the calendar year because of Coordinated Universal Time.

Cox Media Group