The Special Commission on the Commonwealth's Time Zone will vote on November 1st on a final draft of a report recommending that Massachusetts move to the Atlantic Time Zone from the Eastern Time Zone:
A commission is studying the possibility of having Massachusetts join the Atlantic Time Zone, putting it permanently an hour ahead of its current Eastern slot.
That would mean later sunsets in the colder months, and would put the state on a zonal par with the likes of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Bermuda rather than the rest of the eastern United States.
The 11-member commission submitted a draft report on the move in September, and will vote on a final one on November 1. If that gets a green-light, the recommendation will go to lawmakers—who may or may not pursue the move.
Maine and New Hampshire would likely join Massachusetts in switching to the Atlantic Time Zone.
2014 editorial on the benefits. Also at NBC.
(Score: 2) by cellocgw on Sunday October 29 2017, @07:38PM (5 children)
I work in MA and it's tough as it is to coordinate with companies on the West Coast. This would be bleeping insane. I vote for going to Central Time myself. Not really but preferable to Atlantic.
Of course what we really need is a law to make more daylight in the winter :-)
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday October 29 2017, @08:03PM (4 children)
West coast should be on mountain time, with no DST
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @09:14PM (1 child)
Why not just do away with time zones altogether then?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @10:38PM
Because it would be ridiculous. China already does something like that, they should be 4 time zones or something like that, but they all use just one time zone for national unity.
Putting the west coast on mountain time and putting central time over to eastern time would leave us with two timezones that are relatively sane. Trying to put everybody in the lower 48 on one timezone would mean that the hours wouldn't line up very well with the sun.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday October 30 2017, @12:07AM (1 child)
No, no thank you — at least, not California. I hate having late afternoon unnecessarily dark, and the early darkness means we have to spend that much more energy keeping our homes warm before bedtime.
Right now, there's a legislative push towards California switching to perpetualPacific Daylight Time [thesvo.com] instead. To quote that summary, "This bill would place an initiative on the ballot asking voters to repeal Proposition 12 (1949). Should the voters choose to repeal, the Legislature can take action on a follow-up bill that would set California to year-round daylight saving time with federal government approval."
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 30 2017, @01:51AM
Pacific Daylight Time is Mountain Standard Time. The sun would set later, not earlier.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..