Oregon’s sunset at Minto Brown Park. Photo taken by Valeria Ruiz.
On Tuesday, February 20, a bill to make Oregon use permanent daylight savings was unsuccessful in advancing in the senate.
A New York Times article said that Senate bill 11548, which would stop Oregonians from having to change their clocks for daylight savings, would only include the parts of Oregon currently in the Pacific time zone. The bill, which was introduced by Senator Kim Thatcher, made it into the senate but failed to advance with a 16-14 vote against it. More than 150 people had submitted testimony to make the bill.
A Statesman Journal article said that Sen. Thatcher was the tie-breaking vote, but that does not necessarily mean she was against the bill. In fact, she said that she opposed the bill so that the bill could be sent to a committee. This committee would make changes that would require other states in the region to do permanent daylight savings so that Oregon would not be the only state doing it. Arizona and Hawaii are the first U.S. states to not observe daylight savings, but that doesn’t mean they’re always going to be the only ones. Currently, there are bills similar to 11548 in Washington, Idaho and California. Washington’s bill, like Oregon’s bill, has failed to move forward as well.
Eliminating Daylight Savings is Not an Easy Task
This has not been the first time that Oregon tried to eliminate daylight savings. In 2019, Senate Bill 320 was made and it was similar to the bill from this year. It was similar in the sense that it required California and Washington to make similar bills. However, similar to this year, California was too slow to make their bill and Senate bill 320 failed.
There was a brief time that the United States experienced permanent daylight savings. In 1974, President Richard Nixon enacted country-wide daylight savings, but it was unpopular and cut short after 10 months.
What would permanent daylight savings look like for Oregon? A Washington Post article said if the bill were to be passed, then that would mean more sunlight at night, but less in the morning. To be exact, the sun would rise around 8:45a.m. and set close to 6p.m.
