Daylight Savings Saves Neither Daylight Nor Energy

Monday morning I awoke and read "5:50" on my alarm clock. I thought my wife had overslept since she usually is up at 5:30. Turns out here clock read "4:50" and was actually correct. My clock had sprung ahead on its own because like many of us, it was confused by the early changeover to Daylight Savings Time. Congress approved an earlier changeover because it would supposedly increase our energy savings. Not so:

The early onset of Daylight Savings Time in the United States this year may have been for naught.

The move to turn the clocks forward by an hour on March 11 rather than the usual early April date was mandated by the U.S. government as an energy-saving effort.

But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage.

"We haven't seen any measurable impact," said Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co., one of the nation's largest power companies, echoing comments from several large utilities.

That may come as no surprise to the Energy Department, which last year predicted only modest energy savings because the benefits of the later daylight hour would be offset.

For example, households may draw less electricity for lights at night, but will use more power in the early in the day as they wake to darker and chillier mornings.

I commented in an earlier post that it didn't make a lot of sense that my kids would be starting their first class 15 minutes before sun-up. That can't possibly be safe for the kids that have to walk to school. And now it turns out that the promised energy savings is just another congressional fantasy.

Imagine my surprise.