Alaska lawmaker wants to follow Arizona, Hawaii and drop daylight saving
By Steve Quinn JUNEAU (Reuters) - An Alaska lawmaker on Tuesday said the state should ditch the twice-yearly time switches required by daylight savings time and join Arizona and Hawaii in sticking to one standard time, matching a similar proposal in Washington state. State Senator Anna MacKinnon said switching the clocks is a health issue involving more than just the inconvenience of changing six or seven clocks in your house and car. MacKinnon, a Republican who introduced a bill to end the practice, said March's time switch plunges Alaska residents back into winter-like darkness and cited studies linking the time changes to spikes in heart attacks, suicides and workplace accidents. "The closer to the poles you are, the more dramatic the change is," MacKinnon told Reuters. The proposal, introduced last month, is similar to a bill proposed by a Washington state lawmaker that would take effect in 2016. Hawaii and Arizona both spurn daylight savings time. MacKinnon's bill appears to have broad support. There are two similar bills introduced in Alaska's Legislature, one each in the House and Senate. Should her bill win approval, Alaska would opt out of daylight saving time in 2017, putting the state five hours behind the East Coast from November to mid-March. MacKinnon, in addressing a Senate committee on Tuesday, shared stories from the state's rural school districts which noted a change in classroom performance resulting from pushing clocks one hour ahead in March. Until 1983, Alaska had five time zones, more than the contiguous 48 states. It now has two time zones, with some of the Aleutian Islands sharing the same time zone as Hawaii. (Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Eric Walsh)
