Shortly after April Fool's Day turned into today, we foolishly
set our clocks forward for the annual launch of Daylight Savings
Time (DST). Unless you show up an hour late for church, you
probably won't think much about it. Thankfully, Congress is
thinking about it for you. Not content to make a mess of just
the federal budget, which is on pace to post a record $423
billion deficit this year, Congress has imposed chaos on our
clocks. The pork-filled energy bill signed by President Bush
last year will extend DST by about a month starting in 2007.
Why? Congress thinks this little time trick reduces our
"addiction" to foreign oil and cuts electricity use. But the so-
called evidence that DST accomplishes any such thing is as
suspect as a clock that strikes 13. Spring forward/fall back
proponents want you to believe DST was responsible for the
United States reducing its oil use by hundreds of thousands of
barrels each day during the 1970s energy crisis. That statistic
is the main reason we switch our clocks twice