Proposed bill aims to eliminate daylight saving time throughout the cowboy state

It’s a common misconception that Benjamin Franklin invented daylight saving time — he was just being flippant when he suggested it because he didn’t like waking up early — and that’s the reasoning behind a proposal to ditch daylight saving time in the Cowboy State.

If passed as it currently stands, House Bill 68 would exempt the entire state from daylight saving time and all of Wyoming would observe “standard time,” the time used during the winter, all year.

Franklin actually wrote a satirical essay suggesting that Parisians would save the modern equivalent of $200 million by utilizing the sunlight more and candles less because he did not like being awoken by sunrise at 6 a.m. while in France, according to historian and author Christopher Klein.

So, while Franklin didn’t invent the concept, he did propose a change in sleep schedules, which is where House Bill 68, “Daylight saving time,” comes into play.

Switching up sleep schedules throws students off and often coincides with testing, said HB 68’s sponsor, Dan Laursen, R-Powell.

“I just don’t like it — hear it from people and they are tired of changing the clocks,” Laursen said. His wife teaches at Powell High School, and he said he often hears about the trouble it causes the students.

Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Kevin Mitchell said he hadn’t done much research on it and wasn’t sure how it would impact student test scores.

“It affects different people differently,” Mitchell said, adding that he was neither for it or against it.

“It is pretty rough on people,” Laursen said. “But I think I will get heat from businesses and banks and lawyers.”

Anyone doing business outside of the state would essentially lose two business hours a day during the summer if Wyoming stopped participating in daylight saving time while neighboring states continued the practice. That would be similar to dealing with a business in the Pacific timezone, except this would be across state lines. For instance, people in Montana would have to wait an hour for Wyoming’s workday to begin, and then Montana’s workday would end an hour before Wyoming’s.

“I am sure I will get heat on that for scheduling calls,” Laursen said. “I would assume they would remember to call at 9 (a.m.) when he gets there at 8 (a.m.)”

In order for HB 68 to even be considered, it needs a two-thirds vote on the floor before a discussion and vote can be taken for whether Wyoming should end this nearly century-old practice.

Germany was the first country to participate in daylight saving time in 1916 as a way to conserve fuel during World War I. America didn’t adopt the plan until 1918, and to this day some parts of the country still do not participate in the practice. Arizona and Hawaii don’t participate in daylight saving time, though some tribal entities in Arizona observe it.

When it began in the United States, daylight saving time was strongly opposed by those working in the agriculture industry because it meant having to wait an extra hour for morning dew to evaporate, then field workers still left at the same time for dinner.

Now this is no longer a concern, according to Mike Forman, president of the Wyoming Crop Improvement Association.

“We would just adjust to it and it would be fine,” Forman said. “We work all day, everyday, in the summer, so I don’t know if it is a big deal one way or the other. I am sure we can live with either.”

Powell farmer and Western Sugar Cooperative Board of Directors’ vice-chairman Ric Rodriguez said he was in favor of getting rid of daylight saving time. If passed, it would go into effect Jan. 1, 2017 and sunrise would arrive an hour later and sunset an hour later too, which would be helpful, he said.

“Farmers like to farm from sunup to sundown,” Rodriguez said. “For me, winter time has a lot of darkness and I would rather do stuff in the daylight than in the dark.”