Push to Ditch Daylight Savings in Massachusetts Gains Momentum

Photo by slack12 on Flickr/Creative Commons

Has Daylight Savings Time got you feeling sluggish? Relief could soon be on the way.

Last year, Gov. Charlie Baker formed a task force aimed at liberating Massachusetts from the tyranny of the twice-a-year time shift, a proposal met incredulously in Boston. But in a radio interview this week, state Sen. Eileen Donohue, who sits on the Daylight Savings commission, said the discussion is “really pointing in the direction” of a change.

“I think the jury’s still out, but I will tell you the direction that the hearings are going and all the experts are presenting really are raising serious, serious questions as to why we’re flipping clocks twice a year,” the Lowell Democrat said.

Lawmakers in New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island are considering similar proposals to switch from Eastern Standard Time to Atlantic Standard Time.

“We’re seeing momentum for doing this,” Donohue said. “We’ve been doing this for so many years, turning our clocks back in the fall and springing ahead in the spring, with some idea that there must be a reason we’re doing it. Well, what we’re hearing from experts, there really is no good reason.”

The commission is expected to make a decision by the end of the year.