News brief
There’s a push to make daylight saving time permanent across the nation – and some states in the Mountain West are leading the way.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to end the custom of changing time twice a year. That would mean no more “spring forward” and “fall back.” Instead, it would be daylight saving time year-round.
Some Mountain West states – like Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – have endorsed the change. But there’s a catch. States generally say that Congress has to approve it first. And they require that a handful of other states in the Mountain time zone join them.
Meanwhile, supporters are waiting to see what happens in the U.S. House of Representatives. It still hasn’t voted on the bill, which calls for the change to take effect late next year.
Congress approved a permanent daylight savings time in the 1970s, as a two-year experiment to save energy. But there was so much opposition that the nation returned to the March-November time changes before the two years were up.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
