A great quote attributed to several conservative leaders says: “There are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party. Occasionally, they get together and do something that is both stupid and evil, and the press heralds it as a bipartisan accomplishment.”
Thus, the Georgia Senate, in a 45-5 vote, proved the quote true.
Democrats and Republicans together offered a veto-proof majority to legislation that would move Georgia into Atlantic Standard Time. To do so, they hijacked a House of Representatives bill, HB 154, that had designated ambulances as an essential service. They stripped the language and turned an ambulance service bill into a time zone bill.
Under federal law, daylight saving time applies to all current domestic time zones. States can opt out of springing forward. Arizona and Hawaii live on standard time all year.
Georgia’s Senate wants permanent daylight saving time, but to get that requires one of two steps.
First, Congress can agree to grant a state permanent daylight saving time, which Congress has never done.
Second, a state can move itself to a time zone outside current American time zones and only the secretary of transportation need consent. Georgia’s Senate has chosen the latter path of least resistance, needing only Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to consent.
He should not.
Don’t put us two hours ahead of Alabama
Credit: Erick Erickson
Credit: Erick Erickson
While we may all be tired of springing forward and falling backward, moving us to the Atlantic time zone to get out of it would put Georgia — the state furthest west in the Eastern time zone — an hour ahead of New York City and the East Coast for four months of the year.
The state would be two hours ahead of Alabama about the time we play the University of Alabama. Should Georgia make it to the SEC Championship, the game would start at 7 p.m. for the East Coast, but in Georgia, the game would actually start at 8 p.m., keeping our kids up unreasonably late.
In fact, sporting events that people in Georgia care about, particularly football, would all be advanced an hour.
Sunday Night Football, the most-watched show weekly in America, would not end until midnight or later.
Then there are the impacts on work. A Delta flight from Atlanta to New Orleans that right now takes off at 11:05 a.m. Eastern time and lands at 11:37 a.m. Central time would, instead, take off at 12:05 p.m.
One need not be Michael J. Fox with a Delorean to go back to the future. The flight home that leaves New Orleans at 11 a.m. will suddenly arrive in Atlanta at 2:30 p.m., instead of 1:30 p.m., despite only flying for an hour and 30 minutes.
Why not just stay at standard time all year?
Good luck figuring out the appropriate time zone for your Zoom or Teams meeting. The noon time meeting with Los Angeles, should it stay at noon, will now have the staff in Los Angeles logging on at 8 a.m. instead of 9, or Georgia will be at 1 p.m.
The call with New York will be an hour ahead for Georgia. At Christmas, the sun will rise in Georgia after 8:30 a.m., while all the kids in Florida have had sun since 7:30 a.m. to get out and play with their new toys.
Most people get frustrated with the time change. We spend eight months out of the year on daylight saving time and the four dark months of winter in standard time.
If we stayed with standard time all year, we would need no approval from anyone. Hawaii, which thrives on tourism, does just fine with it. The summer sunset still happens late enough for evening golf.
At this point, Congress should act. But that is like expecting rain in the Sahara.
What we should not do is take the state furthest west in the Eastern time zone and set its time to a time zone further east than any American state.
It may be partisan, but those conservative leaders would recognize it as both stupid and evil.
Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated “Erick Erickson Show,” heard noon-3 p.m. weekdays on WSB radio. He is also an opinion contributor to the AJC.
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