PLEASE HELP ABOLISH DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA

    APRIL 18, 2010  -  HB (HOUSE BILL) 19, THE FIFTH BILL INTRODUCED SINCE 1999 TO END THE USE OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA , IS DEAD.   ALL THESE BILLS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY INDIVIDUAL LEGISLATORS ACTING AS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS.

    HB19  WAS HELD BY  SENATOR DONALD OLSON SINCE APRIL 2009.  HE REFUSES TO SAY WHY HE HELD THE BILL UNTIL IT DIED AND CURRENT LAW DOES NOT REQUIRE SENATOR OLSON TO EXPLAIN HIS ACTIONS.

     ALL PREVIOUS LEGISLATION PASSED EVERY COMMITTEE OF REFERRAL WHEN ALLOWED A HEARING AND A VOTE.  HB 19 PASSED THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BUT WAS KILLED BY A SINGLE LEGISLATOR WHO IS NOT REQUIRED TO SAY WHY.  SENATOR OLSON'S TACTIC WAS TO ALLOW A HEARING BUT NOT ALLOW A COMMITTEE VOTE. 

                                THE 1 REASON WE WILL KEEP USING USING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA

                                            1. A single Alaskan Legislator, Donald Olson,  for reasons he will not explain and is not required to explain, demands we use DST

21 REASONS WE CAN NOW QUIT USING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA

1. Alaskan's live in " The land of the Midnight Sun".

2. Instant time change disturbs sleep patterns which creates a state sponsored "jet lag" twice each year.

3. There is no longer a clear and compelling need to impact over 683,000 Alaskans twice each year with this law. 

4. With creation of the single Alaskan Time Zone in 1983  most of Alaska went  on  permanent DST.

5. The 1983 time zone change advanced clocks permanently in two of the three Alaskan time zones affected.   Now when we advance clocks each year, we create" double" and even "triple" DST in most of Alaska which causes a two hour difference between "sun time" and "clock time" in the rail belt region including Fairbanks and Anchorage and three hours in Western Alaska communities and villages.

6. The 1983 time zone change permanently advanced the rail belt region one hour and  northwestern Alaska  two hours closer to markets in the lower 48.

7. What savings of daylight?  For every hour you gain in evening daylight, you lose an hour of morning light.

8. We gain daylight rapidly in springtime Alaska without DST.  According to the (Naval Observatory), rounding to the nearest half hour, both Anchorage and Fairbanks have gained one  hour of natural daylight within 8 days of the onset of DST.

9. Advances in communication technology now allow business and personal contact 24/7 to anywhere in the nation or world.

10. Alaska will be in a different time zone with or without DST.

11. Alaska now does business with the Pacific Far East where DST is not used.

12. No Alaskan Utility claims a savings of energy by use of DST.  Saving Energy is why the Federal Government allows  DST in those states that choose to use DST.  

13.  DST doesn't save energy on a hot summer day either. (Scientific American March 2009) A portion of Indiana recently went on DST.  That portion experienced 1% increase in residential electrical use due to air conditioning increase use when time of sunset delayed. 

14. (New England Journal of Medicine 2008)  Sweden,  a northern latitude populace, experienced 5% increase in myocardial infarction (heart attack) rate in days following onset of DST.  This is attributed to disturbance in sleep patterns.

15.  Anchorage School District supports ending DST because of impact on students (Committee Minutes 4:06:15 PM Mar 16,  2009 before House Labor and Commerce Committee).

16.  Daylight Saving Time is not practiced in every State or Canadian Province.  Hawaii and Arizona don't use DST.  Saskatchewan has adopted Central Standard Time for year round use.

17.  Changing every time keeping device in homes and businesses, including indoor mechanical heating/cooling/security systems, is expensive and time consuming.  Link to  story about the cost of  this.  Chrysler scraps clock changing

18.  The Legislature cannot control the ocean tides for fishermen,  nor  the weather that will impact outdoor activity.

19.  DST doesn't affect the many devices now  using  photoelectric sensors that respond to ambient light,  not the time of day.

20.  Thousands of Alaskans signed a petition asking to vote on this issue and polling data from Dittman Research and Hellenthal & Associates shows majority of Alaskans would support ending DST use in Alaska.

21. Since 1999 this idea of ending DST, when allowed to heard by a legislative committee,  has had seven legislative hearings.  After being thoroughly vetted, the Alaska House of  Representatives passed House Bill 19 in 2009 to end the use of DST in Alaska

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Change your clocks again at 2:00a.m. on Sunday November 7, 2010

Links for further reading in the website:

THE 2004 DITTMAN RESEARCH POLL ON DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (LINK)

THE 2005 HELLENTHAL POLL ON DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (LINK)

WHY END DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA ? (LINK)

LEGISLATIVE EFFORT TO END DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME IN ALASKA SINCE 1999 (LINK)

LINKS TO THE LEGISLATURE AND OTHER  PLACES (LINK)

NEW BOOKS ABOUT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (LINK)

 THE 2006 PETITION EFFORT (LINK)

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EMAIL : email link

L. Willis