Should we save Daylight Saving Time?

The so-called shortest day of the year in this part of the world, the winter solstice, is almost here. But La Crosse has already recorded its earliest sunset of the season. It was 4:27 p.m., for 10 days in a row. Now, sundown is gradually getting later, but it still gets dark around 5 p.m. for pretty much all of December.

There have been attempts to change that. In fact, two years ago, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to keep Daylight Saving Time in effect all year. It was called the Sunshine Protection Act, but Democrats who controlled the US House didn’t bring it to the floor for a vote — despite support from both sides, locally.

Now, the bill is back in committee with just days left in this congress.

I wouldn’t mind having the later sunsets year-round. But we’ve been told that President-elect Donald Trump, and many supporters of his, want to go in the other direction, ending Daylight Saving Time completely — apparently for economic reasons.

Health experts reportedly also lean toward sticking with natural sun time, instead of changing the clocks twice a year, though a consistency one way or another, they say, is better than flip flopping.

I looked up the charts and under Daylight Saving, La Crosse gets sunsets at 8 p.m. or later on 118 days a year — from April to August. Without Daylight Saving, we wouldn’t get any 8 p.m. sunsets. As for me, I’d like to keep at least the current system in place. I can put up with a few weeks of darkness at afternoon rush hour, knowing brighter evenings are not that far away.