EDITORIAL: Stop wasting time

There’s just one problem with a resolution to end Nevada’s pointless, twice-annual clock changes: It can’t take effect soon enough.

Assembly Joint Resolution 4 would ask Congress to authorize the Nevada Legislature to permanently impose daylight saving time in the Silver State. If the resolution passes, and if Congress actually grants Nevada’s request by the end of next year, the 2017 Legislature would have to pass a bill to make the time change official. That means Nevadans will have to set their clocks backward and forward at least two more times each before the disruptions to their sleep patterns end.

If anyone in Nevada likes changing their clocks, they didn’t tell lawmakers. In both a February Assembly hearing and a Wednesday Senate committee hearing, no one testified against AJR4.

And why would they? Thousands upon thousands of total hours spent at homes and businesses changing clocks would be better spent doing anything else. And the time changes result in longer, hotter summer days and prolonged winter darkness. Indeed, daylight saving doesn’t even accomplish what it was supposed to do when it was imposed almost 100 years ago: conservation. Studies show increased air conditioning use in the summer more than offsets whatever energy savings are associated with reduced lighting.

The Senate should pass AJR4. But instead of sparing only Nevada from the resetting of clocks, Congress should vote to halt clock changes across the entire country. It’s a waste of time.