New Bill Says Daylight Savings Time Could Become Standard In Michigan
Daylight Savings Time has been a discussion point for the government for years, constantly changing its stance on whether to participate or not. Some states and countries decide not to participate and that literally makes ZERO sense to me. Nonetheless, the turning of the clocks back and forth has its pros and cons that have people arguing for hours.
The Senate has proposed and passed a bill that if accepted and passed by the other branches of the government could mean the ending of Daylight Savings Time and the tradition of turning the clocks. Last year, Michigan approved a bill that says if the government were to ever do away with Daylight Savings Time, then we would stop turning the clocks.
According to an article by the Detroit Free Press, the US Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which is designed to make Daylight Savings Time permanent in the entire country. Obviously, this isn't where that law will stop as the states will then have individual decisions to make about whether or not they will still observe Daylight Savings Time all year, part of the year, or not at all. Some states already make their own decisions and others have already made decisions to predate the passing of the Act.
Michigan is one of those states that have bills waiting in the queue for the Sunshine Protection Act to pass, but our situation is a little different. The pending Michigan law says that if Congress rules to eliminate Daylight Savings Time, then the state would live on the Daylight Savings Time schedule year-round moving forward. This means we would be on the schedule we are on during the "Spring Forward" phase, giving us later summer sunsets and later sunrises.
Now, this is where things get tricky, the state had put a clause into the new bill that depended on the decisions made by the surrounding states. The clause said that depending on how the states around Michigan such as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois decided to live we would follow suit for fluidity purposes.
How do you feel about Daylight Savings Time and the tuning of the clocks? If you had a vote what would you choose for Michigan to do? Would you want the state to be on Standard Time year-round, Daylight Savings Time year-round, or if we would continue to turn our clocks twice a year to observe Daylight Savings Time?