Time Zone Report

Following Daylight Saving Time legislation in the US

Utah – 2015

Status Summary

One minor bill is now active in the Utah legislature:

  • HJR 26 recommends, among many other items, that the state continue to study whether or not to continue with Daylight Saving Time.

The following three bills are now inactive/killed:

  • HB 247 sponsored by Representative Thurston would exempt the state from DST and then change the time zone from Mountain to Central by state mandate.
  • HB 178 sponsored by Representative Perry would exempt Utah from DST starting in 2015 – no DST would occur this year. See SCR 1 below for additional relevant legislations.
  • SCR 1 sponsored by Senator Osmond requests the permission of the Department of Transportation to drop DST and move the state to Central Standard Time in Utah effective January 1, 2016.

Note: Another bill, SB 18, mentions Daylight Saving Time, but the only purpose here is a technical change to remove the legislative approval for the study of DST authorized and completed in 2014.

Legislation Intent

HJR 26 is simply a resolution which recommends that the Utah House study various things that might need attention.  An amendment to this Resolution added the subject of Daylight Saving Time to the list.

HB 247 proposed to abolish DST and move to Central Standard time, similar to SCR 1. Unfortunately, it takes a “brute force” approach by simply declaring it to be so, in state statutes.  See information from US DOT on similar requests here.

HB 178 would have taken effect before DST starts in 2015, essentially “opting out” of DST forever — or at least until other legislation changes it.

SCR 1 would have requested the Department of Transportation to change Utah’s time zone from Mountain Standard Time to Central Standard Time, essentially moving Utah clocks forward one hour.

A number of states are proposing to adopt a Year-Round DST, thought Congress would need to act first to permit this as an option.

For SCR 1:

Since the Department of Transportation oversees Daylight Saving Time and Time Zone management in general, Resolution SCR 1 requests DOT go grant permission to move the state to Central Standard Time, and also declares the intent to then drop Daylight Saving Time.  This would have the same effect as if Utah remained on Mountain Standard Time but moved to Year-Round Daylight Saving Time.

Note: Current US Code does not allow a state to elect to Year-Round DST.

Links to Legislation

Utah State Legislature

HJR 26

HB 247

HB 178

SCR 1

Links to Sponsors

Representative Lee Perry

Senator Aaron Osmond

Representative Norman Thurston

Other Information

Posts from this Time Zone Report site

Time Zone Report’s Twitter collection “UT-DST-Legislation”

 

Time Zone Report, a service of GoodClix, Inc. © 2015 Frontier Theme