Stop messing around with Daylight Saving Time. The last time Congress (the opposite of Progress) decided to mess with it, almost every single computer in the US needed an update to take care of those changes. Personally I think DST is a waste of time and energy, but even more energy would be wasted to discontinue it.

Thank god I live in Arizona (not on a reservation) where we don't observe DST, although it messes with our TV viewing (since programs are still shown with DST corrections). Doing await with DST for everyone sounds good to me!

DST is an outdated concept that should be extinct. Eliminating it completely makes sense, but convincing the voting majority will also waste energy.

Our Indiana Governor promised moving to daylight savings time would increase jobs, save money, and grow hair on bald heads. Well maybe the hair is an exaggeration but we were suppose to see benefits. No one is offering any proof now. Let's bury DST.

Every time DST begins or ends there are these stories about DST wasting energy and people insisting it should be abolished.

If anyone stopped and thought about it for 2 seconds they'd realize that doing away with it would mean sunrise would be at 4 a.m. during the summer and sunset would be at 8 or so instead of 9p.m (or later depending on your latitude).

These studies don't account for all the money seasonal businesses would lose during the summer months because the sun would set an hour earlier. Or, if you left the clocks permanently on the DST schedule the sun wouldn't rise until like 9am during the winter. Also not ideal.

Personally, I don't need the sun rising at 4 am in the summer and would much prefer to have that extra hour of daylight at night.

THAT is the purpose of DST at this point, not saving energy.

I disagree strongly with the notion that americans need psychological appeasement and thus we should continue daylight savings on this premise alone.

What americans need is to learn to adapt to different time frames in different seasons. If it wasn't for our economy being set up on a mostly 9-5 basis, more or less. People would sleep when they sleep and awaken when they awaken.

And I think the sun going down at 8 pm in the summer is late enough. We need balance, instead of blowing sunshine up peoples asses (pun intended). They should do a study on reverse seasonal effective disorder.

People who become chronically depressed as a result of winter being diminished due to global warming, in areas that have had historically colder weather. The outcome of such a study would be very interesting.

And I have noticed that more and more people (particularly, my generation, the younger lot) have complained more and more of summer heat and less and less of winter cold. It seems the older generations complain more about the latter and less about the former.

Maybe that is because the younger generation understands the need for environmental balance a lot more than the older generations. I for one 'get it'.

Meaning the fact if it were not for a certain degree of winter weather patterns encompassing a certain amount of the globe (E.G geographical/climactic variables, um the HUMAN RACE WOULDN'T BE HERE, STUPD!

So let's embrace winter for all its coldness and darkness, throw away day light savings and learn to embrace not only environmental diversity and balance, but in doing so, psychological balance as well.

Nameless,

What you're talking about (winter cold vs summer heat ) has absolutely nothing to do with DST and DST has nothing to do with "environmental balance". Global warming doesn't effect the amount of daylight we get on a seasonal basis.

As far as younger people complaining more about the heat and older people more about the cold, that also has nothing to do with the environment. Older people feel the cold a lot more than the young, why do you think they tend to move to warmer climates when they retire?

"If it wasn't for our economy being set up on a mostly 9-5 basis, more or less. People would sleep when they sleep and awaken when they awaken."

That's very idealistic but the fact is we do live in a 9-5 world. Do you regularly get up at 4 or 5 in the morning?

What you're saying is rather than change the clocks twice a year we should change from the ground up how we live and work as an entire nation. I think most people would love to sleep when they sleep and wake when they wake but they'd lose their jobs pretty damn quick.

I agree with SKULLIVAN above about 9-5 world. In the colder climes of the UK, we rarely use cooling. The study shows on page 25 that the 1% increase is due to power use for cooling. Noticeable in London, the difference for daylight saving is not that great but by the time you are in Scotland, we have a huge benefit in the summer months. The annual cry for people to keep DST is usually raised, but I remember the 1971-3 experiment where it was kept all year. Children usual start school when adults start work. Children usual finish school before adults. In Winter there is not enough daylight for adults to both start and finish work in light.
If you come home in light, you and children go in the dark. The number of deaths of children run over by cars rose dramatically that the experiment was abandoned in winters. As you go further north the effect increases.