Daylight Saving Time: Good or Bad?

As many of you already know, Daylight Saving Time(DST) is meant to help in conserving energy. But what are the true effects of this act? For the most part the verdict is still out, on whether this will actually help conserve enrgy. I would like to hear from all of you out there on your thoughts about this issue. So far I have heard mixed reviews on the overall importance and effectiveness of DST. Below are two interesting articles on the subject.

Daylight Saving Time Extended by Four Weeks in U.S. Starting in 2007

Every spring we move our clocks one hour ahead and "lose" an hour during the night and each fall we move our clocks back one hour and "gain" an extra hour. But Daylight Saving Time (and not Daylight Savings Time with an "s") wasn't just created to confuse our schedules.

The phrase "Spring forward, fall back" helps people remember how Daylight Saving Time affects their clocks. At 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, we set our clocks forward one hour ahead of standard time ("spring forward"). We "fall back" at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November by setting our clock back one hour and thus returning to standard time.

The change to Daylight Saving Time allows us to use less energy in lighting our homes by taking advantage of the longer and later daylight hours. During the six-and-a-half-month period of Daylight Saving Time, the names of time in each of the time zones in the U.S. change as well. Eastern Standard Time (EST) becomes Eastern Daylight Time, Central Standard Time (CST) becomes Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain Standard Time (MST) becomes Mountain Daylight Tome (MDT), Pacific Standard Time becomes Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), and so forth.

Winners of new daylight savings

The jury is still out on whether extending daylight savings this year will translate into energy savings -- the stated goal behind the move -- but there’s no doubt that some industries expect to cash in on the clock change.

Among the sectors that stand to gain the most when the time changes as of tomorrow morning, providing an extra three weeks of sunshine this spring (another week will be added on in the fall) is the some sports and recreation industries.

“Golf has been the biggest winner in the daylight saving sweepstakes,” said Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.

Solar Energy Report

This months report in Physics Today is a comprehensive look at solar energy. It is by far one of the most informative and up-to date articles, on this subject matter. Read it in the March issue of Physics Today.

Written by:
George Crabtree is a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, and director of its materials science division. Nathan Lewis is a professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and director of the molecular materials research center at Caltech's Beckman Institute.

Investing in Renewables

Going green just isn't what it used to be. Amid rising fuel costs and climbing consumption, more people are getting involved in environmental issues and concerns in new ways.

Yes, there are still ardent environmentalists who have a compost pile in the backyard and a solar panel on the roof. But in the larger picture, significant players in the field are starting to offer economic incentives, not ideology, to involve greater numbers in the green campaign. These include government bodies as well as organizations that are dedicated to promoting the use of alternative, renewable sources of energy.

"In the past few years there has been a significant rise in using passive means of energy conservation," says Michael Richarme, at the Arlington, Texas-based analytical research firm Decision Analyst Inc. "Passive conservation is the simple act of reducing energy use by improving home insulation or using a product that consumes less fuel. "That's a definition of green that's been getting a lot of attention lately."

Program for Real Energy Security Act

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled a bill that would spend about $15 billion to double U.S. automobile fuel efficiency, expand ethanol distribution and build more mass transit.

The so-called "Program for Real Energy Security Act," to be introduced next week, is the second energy bill Democrats have proposed since taking control of Congress in January.

The new bill, backed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and about 100 other lawmakers, could form the basis of energy legislation House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to call for a vote before the chamber recesses in August.

The bill would fund research into ways to double U.S. automobile fuel efficiency, focusing on hydrogen, fuel cells, plug-in hybrids and other high-tech ideas. It would give grants to build more public transit and commuter rail systems, Hoyer said.