Don’t forget to “spring forward” tonight before going to bed. Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday and ends Nov. 2.Americans have always had mixed feelings about daylight saving time. Many welcome it because it gives them a few extra daylight hours for work and play.Parents and farmers, however, have problems with daylight saving time. Farmers believe the additional daylight hours limit egg and milk production, and parents complain their children are forced to begin their school day in the dark.Even so, one Tennessee lawmaker has filed a bill making sure residents of this state don’t “fall back” to standard time. As The Knoxville News Sentinel reported last month, Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, is sponsoring a bill to make daylight saving time permanent in this state.“It will be great for the farmers. It will be great for the school kids,” Todd said in February. “I’ve talked to many businesses and folks across the state about this, and I’ve not got one negative comment about this bill.” Todd said federal law allows states to make such a change as long as the state covers two time zones, which Tennessee does — the Eastern Time Zone in East Tennessee and the Central Time Zone in Middle and West Tennessee.If the legislation is approved by the Tennessee General Assembly and signed by the governor, the law would go into effect July 1 — four months before the date to turn clocks back to standard time.Experts say daylight saving time has been a big help in curtailing energy use in the United States. The additional hour of sunlight has helped Americans save on their electrical bills. The idea is simple: If there is light outdoors, there are fewer lights turned on inside homes across this country. That was one of the reasons the period for daylight saving time was extended by Congress in 2007.Daylight saving time has also become a time for replacing batteries in smoke detectors in the home. So don’t forget to set your clocks an hour ahead and change the batteries in your smoke detectors before turning in tonight.
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