Commentary

The study was made possible because part of the state of Indiana had not participated in daylight savings and the residents there had decided that enough is enough.  It’s confusing having different times in the same state.  The UC SB team was able to look at energy costs before and after the adoption of daylight savings there.

Justin Lahart writes an interesting story on this topic in the Wall Street Journal.  The bottom line is that moving the clock forward in spring used to provide a net savings in energy costs because we used less electricity in the late afternoon.  But with greater adoption of air conditioning, the savings from daylight savings are wiped out by greater air conditioning use on hot afternoons.

In particular, I enjoyed Mr. Lahart’s description of Benjamin Franklin’s suggestions for daylight savings in Paris where he lived for a time:

“In 1784, he observed what an ‘immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.’ (Mr. Franklin didn’t propose setting clocks forward, instead he satirically suggested levying a tax on window shutters, ringing church bells at sunrise and, if that didn’t work, firing cannons down the street in order to rouse Parisians out of their beds earlier.)”

That sounds like an overly proactive energy policy to me.