Argumentative Essay On Daylight Saving Time

In 1784 Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay called “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” Within that essay he brought up ways to save the fuel expenses of a town in Paris, by adjusting the time (Lynnnore, Geraldine 2). Nearly a century later in 1916 his vision came true in most European countries. However, not until 1919 that the United States established a law for Daylight Savings Time. The law was unliked. The law was condemned so much that they repealed the law later in the same year that it was passed. In 1942 daylight savings time was put back into place in the United States this time the switch was called war-time, because of world war II. This period did not last long though, in 1945 after World War II they stopped

The debate on if the switch conserves energy is mixed. Some critics say that the change increases energy consumption and others say the amount of energy used stays neutral. When switching to daylight savings time in 2000, Sydney Australia saw at night the switch decreased energy consumption, but this was equaled out by people using more energy in the morning (LaCasse 2). Within the first couple of weeks of switching the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ has seen that the switch to daylight savings time leads to an increase of energy use due to the cold, dark, mornings (LaCasse 2). Another contributor of Daylight Savings Time not conserving energy is because of artificial lights. As a society we tend to not lean on the sun for light anymore. We occupy more artificial lights which in the end do not help the United States spare any energy. Dominant companies would not be sparing energy on daylight savings time either because most companies do not turn off their heating and cooling systems at night (Warshaw 3). For instance a more recent study done in 2008 says the switch to daylight savings time actually increases energy in the United States. When daylight savings time was done in Indiana, they actually saw a 1% increase instead of a decrease in energy (Warshaw 3). The results of these studies are very