Shirley Starke, Valley City

How wonderful that North Dakota might get rid of Daylight Saving Time! The unseasonably warm weather we’ve had since February might be pleasant, but it forebodes a miserable and even deadly hot summer. Arizona got rid of its extra hour of heat in 1968, and its people are very, very happy with their choice. Because we are so far north, our afternoons are much longer than Arizona’s, so we have even more reason not to add another hour. We don’t see cool evenings until nearly ten at night.

Daylight Saving Time was created to save energy, but now that lights are LED and air conditioning uses more energy than anything else, it makes us use more energy, not less. How much better to have an hour of cool evening to enjoy, and cool the house down before we have to go to bed.

Daylight Saving Time is not only unpleasant, it is dangerous. Fatal heart attacks increase by 4% when we set the clocks ahead, stay elevated through the summer and decrease by 2% when we set them back in the fall. How many North Dakotans does that kill? Even one would be too many.

Farmers were the first and strongest opponents of Daylight Saving Time. They work by the sun, not the clock, and get up at the same time whether you call it six or seven. My father hated DST because he had to come in from the field an hour earlier to get into a place of business, which took the heart out of the afternoon.

Because of our longer days, Daylight Saving Time is worse throughout the North. Montana came very close to abolishing it several years ago, and Saskatchewan already opts out. If North Dakota enacts Standard Time the year around, the states adjoining us are likely to follow.

The committee that examined this bill recommended “Do pass.” Please contact your state senator and recommend it too.