Politics

Colorado Gov. Polis signs law that will end daylight savings time in the state once federal government allows it

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Colorado has officially joined a growing coalition of states seeking to end daylight savings time. 18 other states are currently waiting to make daylight saving time year-round once the federal government allows states to do so.

On Thursday, Governor Jared Polis signed into law “Daylight Saving Time Year Round,” House Bill 1297, which would lock Colorado to daylight saving time, as it is currently in, but only if a federal law is enacted to allow states to choose and at least four other states in the Mountain Time Zone also choose the year-round daylight saving time.

The law “really moves the discussion forward,” Polis said, noting the accompanying stipulations. “There is increasing consensus that just sort of arbitrarily switching the clocks twice a year is confusing and somewhat counterproductive for everybody and upsets people’s sleep cycles,” Polis said.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Cathy Kipp (D-Fort Collins) further called it a public health concern, with studies suggesting that the biannual time change results in more deaths from heart attacks, traffic accidents and suicides.

So far, the US Senate has unanimously passed a measure in the spring to lock national clocks to daylight saving time. The House of Representatives did the same, but no action has been taken.

Montana, Wyoming and Utah have all passed lock-the-clock laws for permanent DST. Only one more state has to adopt daylight saving time, either Arizona, New Mexico or southern Idaho.

If Colorado stopped the clocks, sunrise and sunset would shift about three hours between the solstices. Under constant daylight saving time, from about November 30 to February 8, sunrise is not before 8 a.m., but is balanced with sunset after 5 p.m.

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE

PHOTO CREDITS: CANON CITY DAILY RECORD

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