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“However, if you listen to sleep experts and health experts, it’s not the preferable route,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez suggested that it was just as simple as more people liking DST - that people enjoy watching their kids play later into the day without running into the dark, or that they enjoy the extra hour of daylight. (Chu said he had been advised that Mexican trade partners would simply follow the lead of California.) DST schedule its nearest neighbor, Sonora, ignores DST entirely. In an interview, Chu - who represented Northern California’s Assembly District 25 from 2014 to 2020, with plans to run again in 2022 - told Spectrum News 1 that some legislators were worried that permanent observation of DST would disrupt trade along the border Baja California is the only Mexican state to follow the U.S. The bill made it through the State Assembly before dying at the Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. The bill would have introduced permanent Daylight Saving Time in California, pending Congressional approval. 7), Gonzalez threw her support behind California Assembly Bill 7. In 2018, alongside then-Assemblymember Kansen Chu (a lead sponsor of Prop.
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But, as the California Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee reported, federal studies have found that DST actually increases energy use in some regions of the country (as a result of heating and cooling energy use versus lighting use) and when the federal government extended DST by three weeks, the California Energy Commission found negligible energy savings. The idea is that, by realigning waking hours with daylight hours, people will use less energy to light their homes. In 1949, California voters approved DST by passing Proposition 12. turned to year-round DST (or “War Time”) during World War II from 1945 to 1966, states were left to figure out if and when they would observe DST.
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The first modern use of DST in the United States ran for only seven months in 19 as an energy-saving measure, the U.S. “If we want to eliminate daylight saving time, we just have to get it through the state.”įor definiton’s sake, Daylight Saving Time is the practice of rolling a clock forward by an hour during warmer months, so the sun effectively sets later in the day. “To go to permanent daylight saving time, post-initiative, you have to get it through the Legislature with a 2/3 vote, and then petition Congress,” Gonzalez said. And because of the federal Uniform Time Act of 1966, states can choose to opt out of daylight saving time, but cannot decide to permanently observe DST. But you can’t just get rid of the time switch: you have to figure out if you want to spring forward permanently, or fall back forever. 7 would allow the state to opt out of daylight saving time permanently without another statewide voteįor one, Proposition 7 itself didn’t do away with stopping the clock-swap - essentially, voters gave the Legislature the power to make the decision. Legislative analysis may be needed to determine if Prop.Studies indicate health risks, including heart attack and stroke, increase in the days following the Spring time change.The proposition authorized the California Legislature to make the switch to year-round DST - but permanent DST would require permission from Congress.7 in 2018, Californians still have to change their clocks to keep in line with daylight saving time switches twice each year
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