If a bus leaves Steubenville, Ohio, at 9 a.m. to travel 40 miles to Moundsville, WV and breaks down after 15 minutes on the road, what time is it? Today, one could say with relative certainty that it is 9:15 a.m., but prior to 1966, travelers could have concluded that they had gone back in time after realizing that local clocks read 8:15 a.m.
That infamous 35-minute bus ride along West Virginia Route 2 caused passengers and drivers to change their watches seven times due to inconsistencies in state, city and town daylight saving laws that produced a clock time unique to each area. This and other conditions of irregularity eventually led to the passage of federal legislation that standardized time, based upon a concept created by one of our founding fathers more than two centuries earlier.
Writing by candlelight, Benjamin Franklin first thought of daylight saving time (DST) in 1784 after realizing turning the clock back an hour would provide an extra 60 minutes of sunshine in the evening and would delay the need for burning lanterns. His idea did not gain mainstream acknowledgment until William Willett wrote the “Waste of Daylight” in 1907. Shortly thereafter, during World War I, Congress chose to establish standard time zones (Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern) and a daylight saving time for the summer months. However, daylight saving time received such opposition from farmers whose daily schedule corresponded with the sun’s rise and fall that it was repealed by congressional override only one year later.
World War II sparked a three-year national daylight saving time movement called “War Time” as a way to conserve electricity. Following the war, the federal promotion of DST dissipated and it was left to localized governments to decide which standard to adopt. Consequently, from 1945 to 1966 the lack of national regulations led to several bizarre and unfavorable occurrences, such as the year that Iowa had 23 different DST start and end dates in different parts of the state, resulting in botched dinner reservations and sparsely attended company meetings.
The first action by the West Virginia Legislature to establish daylight saving time was in 1963, when lawmakers passed House Bill 14, authorizing the Governor to annually designate DST as the official statewide time from the fourth Sunday in April to the fourth Sunday in September.
Three years later the U.S. Congress, recognizing the need for uniformity, enacted the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which invalidated any previously passed state laws concerning daylight saving time and mandated that any state that chose to observe DST must set its clocks ahead an hour on the last Sunday in April and turn them back on the last Sunday in October. After the law went into effect, members of Congress received protests from farmers who objected to doing chores in the morning darkness, from drive-in movie proprietors, from early-to-bed, early-to-rise communities, and from the mothers of children who would not sleep until the sun went down, according to a 1967 New York Times article.
The Uniform Time Act allowed states to pass legislation to forgo daylight saving time in favor of year-round standard time, but they could not make any alteration to the federal guidelines. Arizona, for instance, is one of a handful of states that does not go by daylight saving time. However, advocates of daylight saving time argue that it conserves electricity, protects children from darkened school bus stops in the morning, and encourages evening exercise outdoors.
While states are allowed to decide whether to employ daylight saving time, they vary as to whether a governor’s executive order or legislative action shall decide which option to choose. Prior to the passage of Senate Bill 36 in 1978, West Virginia required an annual proclamation by the Governor that the state would follow daylight saving time; the new legislation removed that requirement and mandated the official state time.
Over the last two and one-half decades, the length of time the country observes DST has steadily increased, and in special circumstances it has been extended well beyond its designated duration. Facing the 1973 energy crisis, President Nixon declared that DST would be observed for 15 consecutive months. An amendment to the Uniform Time Act in 1986 established the time period that has prevailed over the last 21 years — the last Sunday of April to the last Sunday in October.
That tradition will be tested this spring in accordance with the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, which moves the beginning of DST up six weeks to the second Sunday in March and the end back one week to the first Sunday in November beginning this year. A number of reasons are cited for the modification, such as energy savings, oil conservation as well as decreased violent and traffic offenses. Though, the federal government still reserves the right to revert back to the 1986 rule if the change is not well received or does not save a substantial amount of energy.
One potentially unwanted effect of this legislation is technological glitches, in what some are calling a “mini-Y2K.” Older computer systems, cell phones, personal digital assistants, etc., are still programmed to change on the dates and times set by the 1986 amendment. Issues of inconvenience will likely occur such as manually changing the time this Sunday on electronic devices, as well as changing them back again when they automatically switch in April.
According to communication technology staff at the Legislature, this new shift will only cause minor problems for lawmakers and personnel at the Capitol. Staff has been working diligently for the past several weeks to update all computers with software patches designed to let the machines adjust automatically to the new start and end dates.
Lawmakers in both the Senate and the House have been burning the midnight oil in anticipation of the final day to complete legislative action, holding floor sessions twice a day and committee meetings that do not adjourn until well after dark. This Saturday, March 10, when the clock strikes 12 a.m. and the gavel goes down, the 78th Regular Legislative Session officially will end. Two hours later, the East Coast, in synchronized fashion, will turn clocks forward an hour, just as lawmakers this session have worked together to pass legislation which will move the state forward toward a better future for generations to come. Perhaps the lengthened summer daylight hours will help shed some light on the long nights to come at interim meetings this spring and summer, and continue to shine brightly upon the beautiful state of West Virginia.
