Utah lawmakers consider dropping daylight saving time

The Utah State Capitol (Mangoman88 Licensed under Creative Commons)

Two Utah lawmakers are looking at getting rid of daylight saving time after a study conducted by the state that suggested wide support.

State Rep. Lee Perry (R) and Sen. Aaron Osmond (R) will propose legislation in the next session to either end the practice or put it in front of voters. About 30,000 people responded to a request for comment by the state on the issue, and 62 percent were in favor of doing away with it, Perry told The Washington Post.

“That tells me this is an issue people want to deal with,” he said.

The most common complaint among those who want to do away with daylight saving time is the hassle of changing clocks, but safety was also brought up, Perry said. “I’ve got parents frustrated because their kids are going to school in the dark.”

Arizona and Hawaii are the only states to not use daylight saving  time, but Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are also looking into it, Perry said. It was instituted nationwide by Congress in 1918. Arizona opted out in 1968, and Hawaii, which became a state after Congress passed the legislation, never participated.

Groups that have come out in opposition to a change include recreational and tourism groups such as Ski Utah, the Utah Tourism Industry Association and Farmington, Utah, amusement park Lagoon.

“The net result would basically be one less hour of significant operation and revenue per day,” Dick Andrew, Lagoon’s vice president of marketing, said in a letter. “We believe this would also be the case for the travel and tourism industry across the state.”

Perry said he was “shocked” by the lack of opposition from farmers. According to the Utah Farm Bureau’s Association, 70 percent of members supported ditching daylight saving.