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Don’t turn back time: Wyoming looking at eliminating ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’

(Dan Cepeda, Oil City)

CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Legislature is again looking at changes to the state’s observance of daylight savings time.

Governor Mark Gordon signed a bill in 2020 that would have Wyoming observe mountain daylight time year round.

However, that law would only take effect if the United States Congress were to authorize states to observe daylight savings time year round and if at least four states in the region were to enact similar legislation to stick to mountain daylight time year round.

The legislature is again taking a look at time-related legislation during their 2021 General Session. House Bill 71 has some key differences from the bill signed into law in last year.

First, the bill proposes establishing mountain standard time as the year round time Wyoming would observe. Mountain standard time it the time observed during winter. The legislation passed last year would use mountain daylight time (summer hours) year round.

Second, in its current status, the bill wouldn’t require Wyoming to wait for other states in the region to adopt similar legislation in order to enact the changes.

In 2021, clocks are set to spring forward one hour on March 14 and are set to fall back one hour on Nov. 7.

Were Wyoming to implement the proposed changes, clocks would not “fall back” one hour each fall, but would stay on the time that is observed during winter.

House Bill 71 is sponsored by Representatives Bear, Burt, Fortner, Neiman, Ottman and Senator McKeown.

The Legislative Service Office say that a bill number for the legislation was assigned on Tuesday. The legislation has not yet been received in the House for introduction.

UPDATE: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that mountain standard time is observed in summer. Mountain standard time is observed in winter. Oil City regrets this error. This story has been updated.

This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.


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