Back in 1974, the year Richard Nixon put into place year-round daylight savings time, I was living just outside Lansing, Michigan. I remember the sun not coming up that January until nine in the morning; we drove to work in full darkness, kids stood under streetlights to catch the school bus, and eight schoolchildren were killed in traffic accidents in Florida.
When Nixon first flipped the switch, 79 percent of Americans supported year-round daylight savings time; by the end of 1974 that had collapsed to 42 percent support. President Gerald Ford signed the repeal that October.
The biggest force behind year-round daylight savings time was the golf course industry. The Englishman who invented the idea of shifting the clocks was an avid golfer named William Willett; the whole idea was to give golfers another hour to play in the evening.
The golf industry told Congress back in 1986 that adding just one more month to the months of daylight savings time would make the industry at least an additional $200 million a year; they got their extension. It was all about the money and had nothing to do with science.
And now, fifty-two years later, Congress is about to repeat the mistake because they’re being leaned on hard by a guy who reported that just last year he made nearly $395 million from people playing golf at his 16 golf courses worldwide.
The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act on July 14 by a vote of 308 to 117, and