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Time ticking on Daylight Savings amid ongoing push for permanent time

Despite the myth that the practice benefits farmers, they, like most, find it more of an inconvenience.
Credit: WPMT
The digital clock on an iPhone makes the jump into Daylight Saving Time in the early hours of Sunday, March 12, 2023. (WPMT/Logan Perrone)

YORK COUNTY, Pa. — 'Springing forward' may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a renewed effort in the Pennsylvania statehouse.

"People reach out of the woodwork from all over the state saying, you know, we got to get rid of this thing," Pa. Senator for Berks and Lancaster Counties Scott Martin said. "There's a rare occasion that I hear from folks who worry about the impact on schools."

Pa. State Senator Scott Martin is once again co-sponsoring a resolution to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, after failing to get the same initiative passed in the last session.

"I think it's time to put away this archaic changing of the clocks," Sen. Martin said.

The practice dates back to World War I when more daylight during the working hours of the day helped save fuel. Nowadays, that same ritual is the result of revenue losses that range in the hundreds of millions per year.

Today, man's manipulation of the clock creates small inconveniences for some people.

"Growing up on a farm I definitely get to see it affect more things than people think it does," Dylan Perry with Perrydell Farm said. "Especially for the animals, it affects them a lot."

Perry addressed other changes too, such as the disruption of automated systems at the farm.

"You got to change everything so that it runs with the changed time," Perry said.

It's a system many, like Perry, feel is obsolete.

"Personally, I don't see a need for it in modern-day society," Perry said. "I think it's outdated and we don't really need it."

While Sen. Martin says that consensus is widespread, a second debate looms on which time system to stay on.

"Where you tend to see some disagreement is if people want to stay on Daylight Savings Time or on Standard Time?" Sen. Martin said. "But I can tell you one thing, though, everyone I've come across agrees that we want to stop changing the clocks."

Regardless of the resolution, change can only be adopted at the federal level.

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