Lawmakers Introduce Bill To End Daylight Saving Time In Michigan

LANSING (WWJ) -  On their first day in the new legislative session in Lansing, a group of state house lawmakers introduced a bill to end Daylight Saving Time in Michigan.

The bill would make Eastern Standard Time the official time zone for the entire state and eliminate setting the clocks backward or forward.

Democrat John Chirkun of Roseville and Robert Kosowski of Westland are among the lawmakers sponsoring the bill.

A similar bill introduced in 2015 was never approved by lawmakers.

"We should point out that this has been around the track before and it has never gotten enough votes," said WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick. "So don't be messing around with your watches or your clocks just yet. It's only in the hopper and it may not happen."

Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. The passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks — from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November.