Bill would add daylight to winter days by switching NH to Atlantic zone

By DAVID CARKHUFF/THE LACONIA DAILY SUN

CONCORD — In the short days of January, when it's dark before 4:30 p.m., the idea of moving New Hampshire into a different time zone with later daylight hours grows more compelling.

Such was the case for state Rep. Kevin Murphy, R-Bedford, who is sponsoring a bill to move New Hampshire a step closer to adopting Atlantic standard time.

House Bill 209, before the Executive Departments and Administration Committee, "provides that, if Massachusetts adopts Atlantic standard time, the state of New Hampshire shall also adopt the Atlantic standard time, the effect of which shall be to make daylight saving time permanent in both states."

Filed at a constituent's request, the legislation adds New Hampshire to a list of New England states pondering such a change.

Murphy said New Hampshire, from March to November, is already in the Atlantic time zone. With his legislation, once Massachusetts made the change, New Hampshire would follow suit, and from November to March, "we'd have an extra hour of daytime in the late evening."

The question, he said, is: "Do you want it to be light at 5:30 p.m. or 6:30 a.m.?"

Murphy said he became a believer in this proposal after experiencing the shock of adapting to the Granite State in the winter.

"Once the constituent called me, I thought back to when I moved to New Hampshire 12 years ago, I moved here from the mid-Atlantic area, it happened to be in January. I realized that my first day here it got dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. I thought that was astonishing," he said.

Aside from moving north, Murphy realized he also moved several hundred miles east, almost straight down from Nova Scotia, where Atlantic time is the standard.

"The more I think about it, the more I think it's a good idea. It's one of those bills that nobody thinks will ever pass, but I think we ought to at least consider it," Murphy said.

Not everyone is a fan of the idea. People who deal with travel and interstate commerce voice reluctance.

"Personally I think it would be very confusing for travelers departing from Boston or Portland, Maine, if New Hampshire were on Atlantic time. My preference would be to eliminate daylight savings for everyone," said Kim Terrio, with Penny Pitou Travel in Laconia (http://www.pennypitoutravel.com).

Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Merrimack, said she co-sponsored the New Hampshire bill based on a constituent request, "plus it sounded like a good idea. Massachusetts is considering it, which makes it feasible — we wouldn't want to be out of phase with our biggest market."

The Massachusetts Senate last year approved an economic development bill which created a commission to study Atlantic time and the impacts of exiting Eastern Standard Time. Signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last summer, this bill created a task force to study the perils and possibilities of a new time zone for Massachusetts.

Murphy said the ties between New Hampshire and Massachusetts justify making any change in New Hampshire contingent on a similar decision in Massachusetts.

"Without Massachusetts going in, it would be impractical," he said.

Ryan Lorrain, legislative aide for Maine Rep. Kathleen Dillingham, R-Oxford, is heading up a similar effort in Maine.

Dillingham has sponsored a bill, "Resolve, Directing the Secretary of State to Request that the United States Secretary of Transportation Place Maine in the Atlantic Standard Time Zone." This bill is similar to legislation proposed in 2005 which failed in the Maine House by a narrow margin, Lorrain reported.

Lorrain maintains a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/AtlanticTimeZoneForME, to promote the effort to move Maine into the Atlantic time zone, permanently implementing daylight saving time year round.

In an email, Lorrain explained that the Facebook page is a "side project" where he sponsors ads to gauge public interest and try "to get a pulse on how the public perceives our misfortune of being on the easternmost part of the Eastern Time Zone."

Lorrain reported, "The more I started digging into the topic, the more I started to realize that most people significantly are opposed to setting clocks back in the fall."

The feedback he has received is "encouraging," he reported.

The Maine bill creates a ballot question to be sent to the voters if the bill passes through the legislature.

"I think it's important to start the conversation, see what the benefits would be in having afternoon sunlight, as opposed to the morning and to find out where people stand. Also I believe it's important to make it clear that this will only put us on a separate time zone during the winter months, and then we'll be on the same time zone with Eastern during the summer. From a logical standpoint, the Atlantic time zone seems to be a much more appropriate fit for New England as a whole," Lorrain reported.

Lorrain expected to follow the progress made in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

According to the Boston Globe, "States can exempt themselves from daylight savings under the federal Uniform Time Act, but moving to a different time zone requires approval from Congress or the U.S. Department of Transportation, which must consider the effect on commerce."