Daylight Savings Time (DST) is notorious in the United States. People always have trouble adapting to whether they should set their clocks forward or backward, watching the sunset before they eat dinner, or waking up early with the sun already in the sky. Personally, I think DST is a joke, but before I elaborate, a brief history review is in order. 

DST in the U.S. has a history dating back to the early 20th century. The concept of adjusting clocks to make better use of daylight was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but it was not until World War I that the idea gained traction. In 1918, the U.S. implemented DST as a wartime measure to conserve energy by extending daylight hours. After the war, DST was discontinued but reintroduced during World War II for similar reasons.  

The confusion caused by the inconsistency in DST observance led to the passage of the Uniform Time Act in 1966. This legislation standardized the start and end dates of DST across the country, although states were given the option to opt out. In the following decades, there were changes to the start and end dates of DST, with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extending the period to its current format; beginning on the second Sunday in March and ending on the first Sunday in November. Over the years, some states have debated the merits of DST, with a few opting to stay on standard time year-round or advocating for permanent DST.  

DST was not created for farmers; it was made to encourage less electricity use via making daylight more readily available during certain parts of the year. This is an especially ludicrous misconception as most farmers would not care what the clock says, their hours are sun-up to sundown.  

DST was created decades ago when the world was at war. A war with tactics, technology, and weaponry that have since become outdated. A war that was fought in a time when electricity was nowhere near as available as it is in today’s world. DST is obsolete.  

The whole thing with giving more daylight to lessen consumption does not coincide with information from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which, when looking at regions across the 48 continental states, shows that the peak hourly electric load for a typical day is closer to six o’clock in the afternoon across the board. This means on any given day, the highest amount of people using electricity is later in the day. During the winter stretch of DST, between November and March, the sun is usually either down or almost down by that time.  

I would also like to direct attention to Arizona and Hawaii, the two states who do not observe DST. According to a 2018 interview of an Arizona State History Professor, Calvin Schermerhorn, this is because of the longer days during the summer portion of DST (March to November.) This meant much hotter days and more energy consumption, specifically those with air conditioning. Arizona specifically has not participated in DST since 1967. 

Overall, DST is something that since its conception has become increasingly obsolete.