Not all of America wants to ‘fall back’ and ‘spring forward’

Almost exactly a year ago, Florida State Senator Greg Steube left the barbershop with more than a haircut. The woman giving him a trim complained that after the recent time change, her kids’ schedules were off. Other customers had different objections to moving clocks back an hour. Then someone Googled why so many of us “spring forward” in March and “fall back” in November to observe daylight saving time.

The answer? During World War I, Germany shifted its clocks to save electricity: Wake people up an hour earlier, the sun feels like it sets an hour later, and you don’t need to turn on as many lights.

The concept caught on around the world, including the United States, which first introduced daylight saving time in 1918 (although it didn’t become permanent in most of the country until nearly 50 years later).

But times have changed – and so have energy costs. In 2006, Indiana joined in on daylight saving time, leaving Hawaii and Arizona as the only states that don’t observe it. That created a “natural experiment,” says Yale University economics professor Matthew Kotchen, who studied data from before and after Indiana’s switch and discovered that energy use increased slightly after.

Kotchen’s other finding: “Everyone is confused about daylight saving time.” Many folks think it starts in the fall, which is when it ends. They’ll tell you it’s for farmers, who don’t care about time (animals don’t wear watches). Some even believe it extends sunlight, a trick that would require controlling the Earth’s rotation.