California Scraps Bill to Remove DST
By Anne Buckle. Published 25-Aug-2016. Changed 31-Aug-2016
Californian voters will most likely not get the chance to vote on removing DST.
Update: No Californian Vote on DST
August 30, 2016, Assembly Bill 365 was voted down for the second time, removing the chance for Californians to vote on keeping or abolishing DST.
The Golden Gate Bridge in California.
©bigstockphoto.com/nstanev
Assembly Bill 385 would have allowed Californians to vote to keep Daylight Saving Time, or to stay on Pacific Standard Time (PST) all year.
Stopped in the State Senate
Even though the bill passed the Californian Senate Appropriations Committee on August 11, it lost by 4 votes in the state Senate August 23, 2016. The bill needed 21 votes to pass.
Opponents argued that the increased time difference would complicate trading between the East Coast and West Coast, changing the time difference from 3 to 4 hours.
Time difference between cities
A Possible Revote
Republican Senator Ted Gaines of El Dorado Hills voted for the bill. He claims DST causes health problems, and that voters should get a chance to end the practice. He got permission to bring the bill up for a new vote next week.
Californian voters first said yes to Daylight Saving Time in 1949, and DST has been in regular use in the state since 1950.
Common Proposal
Assemblyman Kansen Chu from the San Jose District in California first presented the bill, claiming it was time for the public to have their say. In Alaska, a proposal to permanently change the time zone by 1 hour and remove DST, is advancing in the State Legislature.
DST in the US
In the US, clocks are set back 1 hour from 02:00 (2 am) to 01:00 (1 am) local time on the first Sunday in November. Clocks spring forward again from 02:00 (2 am) to 03:00 (3 am) local time the second Sunday in March.
Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only 2 US states that do not use Daylight Saving Time. US dependencies American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Marina Islands, The US Minor Outlying Islands, and The US Virgin Islands do not observe DST.