Just last week, I got a press release from Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Chairman Ed Markey praising the early change to daylight saving time, which was moved forward several weeks by the 2005 Energy Policy Act. In addition to giving us an extra hour of sunlight, it's supposed to reduce energy consumption. It's touted by lawmakers like Markey as saving energy and cutting global pollution, but the problem with the energy savings justification, though, is that it appears to be patently false. As a study out of Indiana recently found, the shift cost households in the state an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. Apparently, savings from reducing the need for light in the evening is more than offset by the increase in heating costs during the dark mornings of spring and fall and the increased air-conditioning on summer evenings. Other studies released after last year's early change also found that we consumed more energy.
Of course, Markey is right that statistics could never quantify the increased level of happiness associated with an extra hour of sunlight. Energy use, though, is quantifiable, and it appears that legislators were wrong on this one. I know there are other pressing energy issues out there, but it seems like it might be time to demand a repeal of early daylight saving time. Or at least an admission that emotional health of the population, with or without energy savings, is enough of a benefit.
--Kate Sheppard
