The time has come for North Dakota to stop the annual routine of "spring ahead, fall back," according to a state senator who has introduced a bill to exempt the state from daylight saving time.
It's time for North Dakota to dump daylight saving time, legislator says
The annual switch "doesn't make any sense," a state senator says.
January 12, 2017 at 3:33PM
"Daylight saving time, from my perspective, just doesn't make any sense," said Sen. Dave Oehlke, R-Devils Lake.
Oehlke and three other senators have introduced a bill that would declare Central Standard Time as "the official standard time of the entire state."
In addition to ending daylight saving time in North Dakota, the bill would bring the entire state into the same time zone. Currently, the southwest corner of the state is on Mountain Standard Time.
Most of the United States observes daylight saving time from mid-March through early November. Arizona, Hawaii and parts of Indiana do not observe the time change. This year, a legislative panel in Massachusetts is studying whether to opt out of daylight saving time.
If Oehlke's bill became law, many cities along the Red River border between North Dakota and Minnesota would be an hour apart in time: Fargo and Moorhead, Wahpeton and Breckenridge, Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
There's a simple solution to that, Oehlke said.
"Minnesota just needs to take the steps we're taking," he said with a chuckle.
John Reinan • 612-673-7402
“This was certainly not an outcome that we were hoping would materialize, and we know that today’s path forward does not provide a perfect solution,” interim OCM director Charlene Briner said Wednesday.
