Bill aiming to eliminate daylight saving time failed in Legislature

It’s time to spring forward again.

Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, and residents should move their clocks ahead one hour.

Rep. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, had sponsored a bill to exempt Wyoming from observing daylight saving time, but the proposal didn’t advance in the Legislature last month.

Under Laursen’s bill, the state would have observed standard time — the time used during winter months — all year.

If he’s re-elected to the Wyoming Legislature this year, Laursen said he plans to sponsor the bill in next year’s legislative session.

“I’m planning on bringing that again,” he said Wednesday.

Laursen added that he doesn’t like the time change, nor the negative effects it can have on schoolchildren, elderly people and other residents.

“I think a lot of people just don’t like it,” Laursen said.

Wyoming Speaker of the House Kermit Brown didn’t let the daylight saving bill onto the House floor for discussion, Laursen said.

Laursen said he jokingly asked Brown, “When are you going to see the daylight?”

The bill may have a better chance during a general session, he said.

The proposal generated quite a bit of interest among residents in Powell and elsewhere in Wyoming. Other states are also talking about eliminating daylight saving time, Laursen said.