Daylight-saving time comes earlier

By Crystal D. Hancock

Nevada Daily Mail

Spring forward, Fall back! Beginning this year, daylight-saving time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at 2 a.m., on the second Sunday of the month, March 11.

Daylight-saving time for the United States is not observed in Hawaii or most of Arizona. However, this program is observed in about 70 countries around the world. With more and more areas of the world beginning to observe daylight-saving time, those of us who do not already know, might wonder what the purpose of it is.

One of the biggest reasons Americans change the clocks to daylight-saving time is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting homes is directly connected to when one goes to bed and when one gets up. At bedtime, most people turn off the lights and television, saving more energy than one might realize.

In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity used is for appliances, lighting, TVs, etc. A large portion of the energy consumed by TVs and lighting occurs in the evening when families are home. By setting clocks ahead one hour, consumers can cut the amount of energy used each day. While the amounts of energy saved per household may appear small, added up they can be very large, making a bigger difference than we might envision.

Daylight-saving time also saves lives and aids in the prevention of traffic accidents and injuries. Setting clocks forward allows more people to travel home from work and school safely in daylight, which is much safer than driving in the dark. Also, except for the months of November through February, daylight-saving time does not increase the dangers of morning driving.

Daylight-saving time also aids in the prevention of crime by reducing people's exposure to various crimes, which are more common in the dark than in light.

Nevertheless, why do we have daylight-saving time to begin with? Who created the regulations that we must follow?

Daylight-saving time is a change in the standard time of each time zone. Time zones were first used by the railroads in the 1800s to standardize their schedules. Now, the American law by which we turn our clock forward in the spring and back in the fall is known as the Uniform Act of 1966. The law does not require that anyone observe daylight-saving time, but that if we are going to observe it, we must do so in a uniform manner. More recently, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed by Congress and then signed into effect by President Bush in August of 2005. Under the new law, daylight-saving time begins three weeks earlier than before, on the second Sunday in March. However, this new Act does not alter the rights of the states to choose not to observe daylight-saving time.