Daylight Savings change...a mistake?

[Atomb]

looks like it may have been a mistake!from here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com...inessQuote »Has daylight saving time fuelled gasoline consumption?SHAWN MCCARTHYGLOBAL ENERGY REPORTEROTTAWA -- The U.S. government's plan to save energy by advancing daylight saving time -- and the copycat action by Canada -- appears to have driven up gasoline consumption as motorists took advantage of the evening daylight to hit the road, a Calgary energy analyst says.Peter Tertzakian, chief economist at ARC Financial Corp., said the daylight policy is a textbook case of politicians "exacerbating the problems they were originally trying to tackle."He said U.S. gasoline demand was growing at a rate of 1.9 per cent prior to the early introduction of daylight saving time, then jumped to a rate of 2.9 per cent, which represents an additional 266,000 barrels a day of crude oil imports.As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the U.S. Congress decreed that daylight saving time would begin this year in mid-March, rather than the first week of April, and would end a week later this fall.Sponsors of the bill claimed the extra daylight in the evening would save electricity because Americans would use fewer lights during the waking hours. With the exception of Saskatchewan, Canadian provinces fell in line with the U.S. measure because they did not want to be out of sync with their major trading partner.But Mr. Tertzakian looked at data on both electricity and gasoline consumption for that three extra weeks of daylight savings time. He concluded that, while there was a negligible impact on power usage, demand for gasoline climbed significantly during the period.The economist said timely data is not available in Canada, but that he assumed the same pattern held as in the United States. "I'm highly confident that there's been no impact on electricity demand as a consequence of this program," he said in an interview."The major assumption was that the hour [of daylight] that you take away in the morning, people were sleeping. But that's not necessarily true -- they get up and have to turn the lights on to make breakfast; you haven't gained anything."A U.S. Department of Energy study predicted energy savings of 0.4 per cent a day as a result of the earlier-than-usual "spring forward." But Mr. Tertzakian said the data indicate U.S. electricity was virtually unchanged for two of the three weeks in question, while a rise in the middle week was entirely attributable to weather.Conversely, the resulting growth in gasoline consumption in the United States was anticipated, at least by some analysts. At Congressional hearings into the energy bill, a senior Department of Transportation official warned that any reduction in electricity would be offset by increased travel demand."The goal of the daylight policy was to curtail 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of energy demand, not guzzle multiples more," he said.He conceded there is no hard evidence that the surge in gasoline demand was directly attributable to more after-work daylight, but he noted that pump prices were actually rising at the time."You are given an extra hour of daylight -- you are going to come home and go out and do something. And in our society, 'doing something' more often than not means getting into a car and going somewhere."The economist said the surge in demand came at a particularly bad time for North American motorists because supplies were already tight. As a result, pump prices will face upward pressure with the coming of the summer driving season.U.S. Representative Ed Markey, a Boston-area Democrat, was one of the main sponsors of the 2005 Energy Act, and recently defended the early daylight saving time on U.S. television talk shows such as Today.Mr. Markey, who is now sponsoring a bill to force auto makers to dramatically improve fuel-efficiency standards, said he still believes that, in the long run, the four extra weeks of daylight saving time will save energy. "We know it will have very small impacts over a three-week period [this spring]," said a spokesman from his Washington office yesterday. "But when you incorporate years of that, it becomes significant."Under the legislation, the Department of Energy must report on the energy impacts of the changes to Congress, which explicitly retained the right to revert back to the 2006 schedule.

[joatmon]

The truth is out!

Attached files

[mspalmer]

Although the attachment is true, it was actually written in satire according to one of my favorite websites: snopes.comsee: http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/daylight.aspMike

[MRCN RCE]

come on guys, it can't be a mistake. we've gotta know what we're doin, we're america, we know everything lol to the canadians: although i didn't have anything to do w/ this decision, i feel that it's my duty as an american to apologize to our neighbors up north for messin up their energy/fuel consumption. sorry guys

[Raven]

I like the long days. If people are driving around more, they are shopping more and spending more which is good for the economy. The longer evenings are definately good for mental health, mine anyways.