Daylight saving has been a curious issue in our nation's capital for almost six full years now. It's been a big talking point for Oklahomans even longer. Senator Lankford's Sunshine Protection Act has once again been filed in DC, will 2025 be the year Congress makes this happen for all fifty states?

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Oklahomans have long argued whether it'd be better to have permanent daylight saving or year-round standard time, but it seems almost everyone agrees it's time to choose one or the other.

The Sunshine Protection Act:

A BILL

To make daylight saving time permanent, and for other purposes.

Short, sweet, and simple as all legislative bills should be.

If passed, any state in the nation may switch to permanent daylight saving time year-round.

If a state either doesn't want to or hasn't adopted daylight saving anyway, like Arizona, they're welcome to stay on standard time year-round, which is legal for all states to do now... but most don't want to.

The problem with permanent standard time.

Having year-round standard time would mean the longest day of the year, June 23rd, the sun would rise at 5:21 AM and set at 7:50 PM.

Some people say that's a problem. Both the sunrise and sunset are too early, but the other half of everyone is OK with that.

The problem with permanent daylight saving.

Pushing the clocks ahead one hour permanently has a similar, but opposite problem. In the depths of winter, while most Oklahomans are cool with a later sunset around 6:30 PM on our shortest days, the sun won't rise until almost 9 AM the next morning.

That is an extremely late sunrise for our part of the country, even if it is standard time.

All the same, there are portions of the country where the sun doesn't rise until 10 or 11 AM now. Flipping to a permanent daylight saving time, it would push sunrise to nearly noon in a few states that exist either far north or far westerly within their time zone.

A better solution?

While we still continue to argue if daylight saving or standard time year-round would be better, there is a small faction of fans for adding four new time zones to the United States.

Instead of having four time zones split by the hour, fans suggest that having eight time zones split by half an hour would make more sense for a country our size.

Time.gov
Time.gov
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It is wild to think Panama City, Florida shares the same time with Kenton, Oklahoma.

The sunrise in Panama City was at 6:39 AM this morning, while in Kenton, it didn't rise until 8:04 AM, even though they're both at the same time.

Same/same in other time zones, particularly in the New England/Northeastern area of the country.

Will it fix anything? Sort of. We'll all get to stop changing our clocks twice a year, but half of everyone will be unhappy with whatever the others decide.

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