DENVER (KDVR) — Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill to make daylight time permanent in Colorado in June 2022. Yet, the clocks still fell back in November. In 2023 we are once again about to spring forward.
You would think Coloradans would be done with it forever, but that isn’t the case.
If you’re sick of changing the clocks twice a year and are looking for some hope, you may be disappointed.
What is daylight saving time, and what is standard time?
Standard time is essentially the base in a given time zone, which, in Colorado, is the Mountain time zone.
So, for the four months of the year daylight saving time is not in effect, Colorado is on Mountain Standard Time. When you spring forward your clocks in March, you join Mountain Daylight Time, which is just standard time plus one hour.
The law signed by Polis last year would change the year-round standard time in Colorado to Mountain Daylight Time instead.
Why isn’t Colorado on permanent daylight time yet?
Legally, Colorado cannot adopt daylight time permanently until the federal government allows it.
This is because the federal law that started it — the Uniform Time Act of 1966 — only allows states to opt out of the program and does not let them permanently opt in.
States such as Arizona and Hawaii have opted out of the program, and a few states including Colorado have passed laws that would keep DST permanently once federal law is updated.
However, that is not the only thing that is stopping the state from enjoying later sunsets year-round.
Even if Congress passed a law tomorrow allowing states to follow DST year-round, the law in Colorado requires at least four other states in the mountain time zone to pass their laws for it to take effect.
Those states include Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and the southern portion of Idaho.
Two of the states — Utah and Wyoming — passed similar laws before Colorado did, leaving only two states remaining that need to pass permanent DST laws.
But that may be easier said than done. For example, Idaho is split into two time zones. A law that passed in 2020 would allow permanent DST in Idaho, but only in the northern half of the state and only if Washington passes its own law.
What if the entire country changed to permanent DST?
A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate called the Sunshine Protection Act would enact daylight time permanently across the country.
If the bill passed, this coming Sunday at 2 a.m. would be the last time the clocks change.
This is the second time a bill like it has been introduced. Last year, it passed the Senate unanimously but went nowhere in the House of Representatives.
Regardless, you will still lose one hour of sleep this coming Sunday, and at least for now, continue the bi-annual ritual of changing all the clocks around your house.