Daylight Saving 2013: Petition Targets DST For Elimination

Down With Daylight Saving Time?

On March 10, Americans will set their clocks forward an hour in the biannual ritual known as Daylight Saving Time (DST). But the hour of reckoning could be close at hand for DST, if some online petitioners get their way, that is.

A petition seeking to eliminate DST (or make it the year-round standard) has surfaced on the White House's "We the People" crowdsourcing platform. The document, which needs 100,000 signatures to prompt a response from the West Wing, urges President Obama to eliminate the "archaic practice" of adjusting clocks twice a year.

Daylight Saving Time was standardized in the U.S. by the 1966 Uniform Time Act, according to National Geographic. That act has since been amended several times, most recently by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended DST by one month.

The "We the People" petition claims that, while some industries still support DST, studies have shown the change is a health risk, leads to a loss in productivity and is "really annoying."

The petition is still many signatures from its goal, however, and may very well join the list of failed petitions, a list that includes a recent request to change the U.S. national anthem to R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)."

Though participating areas of the country must switch their clocks on the same day, no federal law forces states to observe the time change, according to National Geographic. Arizona, for example, has not observed DST for decades.

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