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: 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.