DST 2007: Energy Policy Act of 2005 - the few lines...

I've been wanting to post about this for a few days now, and as we wind down towards the earlier onset of Daylight Savings Time this year, hopefully with most of us having dealt with DST 2007 issues already, there couldn't be a better time than this. If you haven't reached the finish line with your DST 2007 efforts yet, look at it as inspiration to get it done within the next 36 hours or so!

Never before have IT folks been as affected by as few lines (..and we're not talking about lines of code here.. :) written by lawmakers.. if you look up the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 110, here's all you'll find:

SEC. 110. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.
(a) AMENDMENT.—Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966
(15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘first Sunday of April’’ and inserting ‘‘second Sunday of March’’; and
(2) by striking ‘‘last Sunday of October’’ and inserting ‘‘first Sunday of November’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year
after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever
is later.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 9 months after the
effective date stated in subsection (b), the Secretary shall report
to Congress on the impact of this section on energy consumption
in the United States.
(d) RIGHT TO REVERT.—Congress retains the right to revert
the Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules once
the Department study is complete.

I can't help but smile at the enormous impact the above lines have had on our lives in the past few weeks and days!

We have two Congressmen - Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) to thank for this!

Repeat after me: "We will save energy, lower crime and traffic fatalities, have more recreation time and see increased economic activity, by switching to DST three weeks earlier and delaying the switch back to standard time a week later than what we've been doing since 1966. Day light saving will bring a smile to everybody’s faces, and IT's efforts were a small price to pay for this...." :)

... Er.. Congressmen, would this account for the recreation time us IT folks lost because of this? :)

What could be worse? Come December, the Department of Energy submits a report saying we didn't save much energy, and certainly nowhere close to what was estimated. Another Act or Amendment to this one mandates we need to switch back to the regular DST schedule!