At 2 a.m. Sunday, Maine joined 47 other states in observing the end of this year’s daylight saving time. It’s an odd annual ritual that alternatively gifts us with an extra hour of sleep only to snatch it away a few months later.

So odd, in fact, that this year our legislature joined 35 others in questioning if we should continue the practice. Two bills were presented for consideration. One, LD 885, would keep Maine in unending daylight saving time when and if the federal government authorizes it by law. While this sounds like an unnecessary bit of lawmaking at the state level, it isn’t.  

Florida joined six other states in enacting a similar bill, keeping it in Eastern Daylight Saving time if the U.S. decides to do the same. As sponsor of the Maine bill, Rep. Donna Bailey of Saco explained in her testimony, “Given Florida’s law, should the U.S. Congress eliminate the need to change our clocks twice a year, Maine would find itself an hour earlier than Florida ... This makes no sense.”

The bill passed and on June 11 became Maine law. If the federal government ever votes for permanent daylight saving time, Maine stands ready.

The other bill (LD 144) sought to do away with changing clocks twice a year by moving Maine into the Atlantic Standard Time Zone and that would require permission from Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

Here’s why:

In 1883, railroads in the U.S. and Canada merged 100 local time zones into four regional zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. In 1918, the federal government created the Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the time zones.

In 1966, Congress created the U.S. Department of Transportation which became responsible for our time zones and daylight saving time. Only Congress or the Secretary of Transportation can make a time zone change and Congress hasn’t made one in 60 years.

Today, there are eight regional U.S. time zones:  Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Hawaii-Aleutian, Samoa and Chamorro. Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe the annual spring forward, fall back change.

Moving Maine into the Atlantic standard time zone (AST) would put Maine time one hour later, keeping us in permanent daylight saving time. Other New England legislatures are looking at the same zone shift and bills proposing this have been introduced in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

This spring, our legislature’s committee on state and local government heard arguments for and against LD 144.

The arguments in favor included physical and mental health issues like seasonal affective disorder and the documented increase in heart attacks and accidents each year after our clocks spring forward and we lose an hour of sleep.

Broadcasters argued strongly against the bill. WMTW President and General Manager David Abel submitted testimony saying “Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are arguably the two best programs in terms of audience and popularity on television today.” Because the network feeds the station the programming based on Eastern Standard Time, if Maine moved to AST, these programs would be seen at 7 p.m. some months and 8 p.m. other months. “From experience, I can attest that this will cause undue angst at least twice a year amongst viewers,” he told the committee.

Maine Association of Broadcasters President and CEO Suzanne Goucher echoed Abel’s remarks. “During the winter months, the network news would run at 7:30 instead of 6:30, the 11 p.m. news would run at midnight, and all of your other favorite programs will run an hour later.”

The arguments were persuasive and the committee voted against passage.

So it remains to be seen if Congress will end the century-old practice of changing clocks forward and back each year. In the meantime, unless Chao decides otherwise, “Wheel of Fortune” will continue as scheduled.