Welcome to the first full day of spring.

At long last, the hours of daylight exceed the hours of darkness.

The winter’s snowfall has largely melted.

Snow in the air after the beginning of spring is common.

Even measurable snow can still fall.

Whatever white stuff comes our way in the next few weeks, the brunt of winter has passed.

The snowmobile season has ended.

If anything remains of the ski season, it will be short.

Crocuses are beginning to peek out of the ground.

Daffodils and tulips are a while away, but it won’t be too long.

The tasks of spring cleanup are–or shortly will be–at hand.

Warm-weather outdoor sports are beginning to start.

Soon it will be time to put out docks and put boats into the region’s waters.

With spring comes the return of daylight-saving time.

Daylight-saving time shifts one hour of daylight from the beginning of the day to the end of the day.

With that ritual comes the semi-annual conversation by some who oppose changing clocks by one hour twice per year.

Consider this: How do they feel about changing clocks by one hour when traveling to a neighboring time zone, such as from the eastern-time zone to the central-time zone? That’s just west of Michigan, most of Indiana, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, Georgia, and the eastern part of the Florida panhandle.

Is that a big deal? If so, why? If not, why oppose changing clocks by one hour twice per year?

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With that, let’s pick up where we left off three years ago this week.

In 2022, the U.S. Senate–without formally seeking public input or having serious debate–unanimously passed and sent to the U.S. House of Representatives a bill to put the United States on daylight-saving time permanently starting in 2023.

In the House, the bill died.

The United States once tried switching to permanent daylight-saving time.

That was in 1974, and it didn’t last long. It soon became obvious that it was better to have an extra hour of daylight at the beginning, than at the end of the day. For example, many–not all, but many–children who had gone to school in daylight during standard time suddenly found themselves going to school in the dark during daylight-saving time.

In Chautauqua County, for example, around the winter solstice, it gets light shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. That’s shortly after 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. At the other end of the day, it gets dark shortly before 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. That’s shortly before 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

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Now afoot, according to reports, is the opposite proposal: Have the entire country permanently on standard time. In other words: Do away with daylight-saving time throughout the country.

That’s mistaken too.

During what are now the daylight-saving-time months, dawn would be an hour earlier and would come at an hour when many people don’t need daylight.

The extra hour of daylight in the evening would be gone.

In Chautauqua County, June nightfall would come in the 8:00 hour, rather than the 9:00 hour.

And on Oct. 31, children celebrating Halloween would lose the extra hour of daylight in the early evening.

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If individual states want to go their own way on having only standard time or only daylight-saving time, they’re free to do that. Fine. Please go ahead. Hawaii and most of Arizona stay on standard time all year. Most of Indiana used to.

Yet no states should impose such preferences on the rest of us.

In short, this is about federalism: The federal government should stay out of the decision on whether to change clocks twice per year.

Meanwhile, those opposing the semi-annual changing of clocks would do well to spare us the loaded title of the “Sunshine Protection Act.” Changing or not changing clocks semi-annually doesn’t protect sunshine. Instead, it determines when–by the clock–sunshine occurs.

Congress should reject the misnamed “Sunshine Protection Act.”

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Randy Elf joins those in favor of changing clocks twice per year.

COPYRIGHT (c) 2025 BY RANDY ELF