Daylight saving bill: Powell lawmaker’s bid to end time change fails again

Posted 2/20/18

“I’m bringing my bill again in hopes that you guys all will see the light,” Laursen quipped in pitching his bill to his fellow legislators last week.

The Powell Republican added that, “Many people despise changing the clock two times a …

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Daylight saving bill: Powell lawmaker’s bid to end time change fails again

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Get ready for another year of “springing forward” and “falling back.”

For the third straight session, the Wyoming Legislature has rejected Rep. Dan Laursen’s efforts to end the twice-a-year time changes in the state.

“I’m bringing my bill again in hopes that you guys all will see the light,” Laursen quipped in pitching his bill to his fellow legislators last week.

The Powell Republican added that, “Many people despise changing the clock two times a year and I’m one of them. It does affect our lives and especially the younger and older citizens.”

Laursen’s legislation, House Bill 45, would have permanently put Wyoming on daylight saving time. That’s the time in place from mid-March to early November, intended to provide more light during the evening hours.

The bill needed support from two-thirds of the members of the House (40 lawmakers) to be considered during the budget session. HB 45 came up well short of that threshold, garnering 27 aye votes against 32 nos on Thursday.

Park County Reps. Scott Court, R-Cody, and Nathan Winters, R-Thermopolis, supported the legislation, while Reps. David Northrup, R-Powell, and Jamie Flitner, R-Greybull, voted no.

One of the primary objections expressed on the House floor was that the bill would put Wyoming out of sync with surrounding states for roughly four months out of the year.

Rep. Andy Schwartz, D-Jackson, said he understands people dislike changing their clocks in the spring and fall. However, given that he has to travel through Idaho to get to parts of his district, “I would be changing my clock repeatedly in the course of one day,” Schwartz said.

Rep. Stan Blake, a Green River Democrat who works as a train conductor, said having Wyoming on a different time than its eastern and western neighbors would present “a major problem” for the railroad industry.

Rep. Dan Kirkbride, R-Chugwater, similarly said he feared it would make Wyoming “a commercial island in the middle of the Rocky Mountain region.”

“If you can get the other states that surround us to go for it, maybe,” Kirkbride said. “In the meantime, I think we should pull the curtains down on it.”

Many other states have discussed the issue in recent years. Last week, Florida’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a measure that — like Laursen’s legislation — would call for the Sunshine State to stay on daylight saving time throughout the year. The bill must pass other hurdles before becoming law.

Closer to home, the Montana Senate endorsed a bill last year that would have ended daylight saving time, putting the state permanently on standard time. The legislation died in a Montana House committee after lawmakers heard opposition — including concerns about how it would put Montana out of sync with Wyoming.

A representative from Cloud Peak Energy told Montana lawmakers that the change would disrupt the lives of about 250 workers who commute from Sheridan to Cloud Peak’s coal mine in Decker, Montana, the Helena Independent Record reported.

“These folks work 12-hour shifts. An hour difference would be a big deal to them,” Todd O’Hair, a Cloud Peak representative, was quoted as telling Montana lawmakers last March.

During Thursday’s debate in Cheyenne, Rep. Laursen called for Wyoming to take the first step toward ending the twice-a-year time changes.

“Many states are visiting the issue, but are looking for a state to lead,” he said. “Our state should be that leader.”

As Montana’s debate illustrates, not everyone agrees on whether daylight saving or standard time is preferable.

A couple of school teachers called Rep. Mark Kinner, R-Sheridan, about the impact HB 45 would have had on children’s school days.

“... They were concerned about our kids getting up fairly early and then having to go to school in the dark during that time of year when the days are very, very short,” Kinner recounted.

The lawmaker said he’d also gotten “a lot of feedback” from people who’d prefer to stick with standard time.

The federal government’s Uniform Time Act allows states to opt out of daylight saving time and stay on standard time. That’s what Hawaii and Arizona do.

But getting rid of standard time, as Laursen’s bill proposed, would be trickier.

Under HB 45, the governor would ask the U.S. secretary of transportation to transfer Wyoming from the Mountain time zone to the Central time zone. Technically, Wyoming would then be on Central Standard Time, rebranded as “mountain daylight saving time.” The net effect would be that Wyoming would stay on daylight saving time year-round.

HB 45 argues that Wyomingites are more habituated to the eight months of daylight saving time than the four months of standard time — and that the biannual switch “is disruptive to commerce and to the daily schedules of the residents of the state.”

When Laursen first drafted a bill about the time changes in 2016, he proposed making standard time permanent. However, he switched course after hearing from many people who preferred daylight saving time.

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