Mass. panel seeks regional talks on time zone change

BOSTON (AP) — Days before most U.S. residents "fall back," a special commission in Massachusetts recommended Wednesday against switching to yearround daylight saving time — and ending the practice of moving clocks forward and back twice a year — unless most other Northeast states also participate.

The panel spent months studying a possible shift from the Eastern to the Atlantic time zone, which would effectively result in 12 months of daylight saving time. The commission said in its final report that such a change could be beneficial "under certain circumstances."

Most notably, a majority of other Northeast states would have to act in concert to adopt the same new time zone, the commission concluded.

"Any move to year-round (daylight saving time) should be regional, because acting alone would make Massachusetts a significant outlier, and could disrupt commerce, trade, interstate transportation, and broadcasting," the report says.

Daylight saving time ends Sunday, when clocks will be set back an hour in all but two U.S. states, Arizona and Hawaii.

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands observe Atlantic time, as does Nova Scotia and part of Quebec. Seventeen U.S. states are in the Eastern Time Zone.

"There is a real compelling argument to be on one time all year round, said Thomas Emswiler, a public health advocate who first proposed the study commission and was later appointed to serve on it.

After moving to Boston a few years ago, Emswiler said he was horrified to see the sun set around 4 p.m. on cold winter days.