Time Zone Report

Following Daylight Saving Time legislation in the US

Alabama Won’t Pursue Year-Round DST Legislation

Ray Harwood at Time Zone Report has received an Email from Alabama Senator Rusty Glover’s office indicating that the Alabama legislature will not be considering Year-Round DST.  The Email reads:

Thank you for your support and information concerning time zones and Daylight Saving Time.  Our office has been informed by our Governor’s office that we in the state legislature cannot enact a bill of this nature.  It has to be done by Congress.  I really appreciate your taking the time to e-mail me.

Of course, this isn’t exactly true.

No state can currently enact legislation to go to Year-Round DST, because 15 USC Subsection IX “Standard Time” doesn’t permit it.  And it is unlikely that Congress would enact legislation changing the time in any state, since the US Department of Transportation has oversight of time zones and monitors compliance with US Daylight Saving Time regulations.

Time For Congress to Create “Forward Time”?

What Congress can do is modify the relevant time zone regulations to permit a Year-Round DST, something we here at Time Zone Report are starting to call “Forward Time”. “Year-Round Daylight Saving Time” is long and easily confused with “part-time Daylight Saving Time.”  We think the designation “Forward Time” is simple enough, lends itself to use in time zone abbreviations EFT, CFT, MFT, and PFT, from east to west.  And easy enough to explain to young children, and your parents and grandparents.  “Grampa, Forward Time is where a state moves the clock forward an hour, and just leaves it there, with none of that spring-forward fall-back stuff you complain about every year.”

 

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