Hawaii Hispanic News
Page 9 - April 2011
It's Easy Being Green: Does Daylight Saving Time Work? The United States passed a law in 1918 that both established time zones WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Sunday, and instituted a DST similar to what we March 18, most Americans woke up a have now. When the war concluded, the little bit groggier. Thanks to daylight law proved unpopular enough to coax saving time, or DST, clocks in most parts President Woodrow Wilson into vetoing of the United States were set one hour its renewal. ahead—robbing millions of precious President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sleep, but rewarding them with extra later reinstated a year-round DST during daylight in return. World War II to curb wartime energy The interval for DST has been longer consumption. But that law expired at the in the past four years. That’s because the end of the war, as well. Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated that Finally, in 1966, a more standardized DST be extended by one month. It used DST was implemented that coincided to last from the first Sunday in April to with the Universal Time Act. The law the last Sunday in October, but now lasts was adopted throughout the country in from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November. Why the switch? Or, more to the point, why have DST at all? The answer lies in the desire to conserve energy. DST proponents argue that waking up earlier to take advantage of the increased daylight reduces the need for artificial forms of lighting—and they have been making this argument for literally hundreds of years. Ben Franklin was one of the first to propose something along fits and starts, but the central idea was the lines of DST. The Founding Father the same: reduce energy by capitalizing argued in a satirical piece, written on the available natural light. anonymously for the Journal of Paris, The logic behind DST is rather that the government should tax window intuitive. But does it work in practice? shutters, ration candles, and ring church No clear consensus has emerged from bells at sunrise to encourage Parisians to studies despite the historical assertion wake up earlier. And, of course, Franklin that DST saves energy. wrote that firing cannons would serve as • The Department of Transportation, or an effective alarm clock should Parisians DOT, was ordered to conduct a study fail to rouse. evaluating the time shift’s energy Franklin’s tongue-in-cheek plan savings after the United States went never caught on, predictably enough. It on extended DST following the 1973 wasn’t until World War I that countries oil embargo. The DOT estimated a around the world started using DST to reduction of roughly 0.75 percent. reduce energy consumption, beginning • A National Bureau of Standards study with Germany and its allies. two years later, however, found no By José Villa, Senior Editor
evidence of a decrease in energy consumption. • A 1983 German study determined that energy savings could be much more than estimated in the United States. By running a simulation, the Germans determined that DST was responsible for a 1.8 percent decrease in energy consumption. • But another European study conducted in 1999 cut that estimate down to only half of a percentage point. University of California at Santa Barbara professor Matthew Kotchen and grad student Laura Grant had a unique opportunity to conduct a study that would more directly test the cause and effect of DST on energy consumption. Only 15 of Indiana’s 92 counties observed DST as of 2006. The entire state adopted the new DST after the aforementioned 2005 law took effect in 2007. Kotchen and Grant found that DST in fact increased energy consumption in the state by testing the difference in energy consumption between the two years (adjusting for variables such as temperature). The authors found that artificial light use decreased, but those savings were more than offset by the increased usage of cooling systems, which residents needed to combat the hot Indiana summers. Whether or not DST reduces our energy usage remains unclear. The studies that have demonstrated an impact in either direction show that impact to be marginal. It is possible that DST could reduce our energy consumption, but the law alone is not enough, as the Indiana study demonstrates. We need to keep in mind the law’s intent and augment our own behavior accordingly. Realizing the potential of daylight saving time may in fact be possible by increasing awareness of ways to reduce our energy usage.
José Villa “This Week In The Hispanic Nation” news segments air during the “Sabor Tropical” Salsa music radio show. Saturdays, 5pm – 8pm. With your host, known to friends as “Señor Salsa,” Ray Cruz Hawaii Public Radio KIPO/FM-89.3 Listener-Supported “Radio With Vision” 738 Kaheka St Honolulu, HI 96814