Should Michigan End Daylight Saving Time? Lawmakers Discuss Legislation

LANSING (WWJ) - Michigan lawmakers are holding a hearing to discuss legislation that would eliminate Michigan's twice-annual time change.

The House Commerce and Trade Committee on Tuesday is hearing arguments on a bill that would eliminate Daylight Saving Time and make Eastern Standard Time the official time zone for the entire state.

"Let's be rational, let's use common sense legislation and let's do something that's going to affect all of us in a positive way, not a negative way," said Macomb County Representative Peter Lucido, the bill's sponsor. "It's negative when there's so many detriments that are happening when you change your clock."

The second-term Shelby Township legislator says the twice-a-year time changes are disruptive, making employees late to work and negatively affecting how students perform at school. He says the time changes also cause health risks and disruption of sleep patterns.

"We're irritable at the time we have to change these clocks and at the time we have to live with that hour sleep deferential," he said. "But more importantly, students who are going to school, teachers have had an outcry saying they have to go ahead and wait at least a week or better for the students to readjust to a time change. And for what? I don't know."

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

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.