How Much Daylight Would Maine Lose This Summer Without Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight Saving Time. Let's be honest; We've all complained about it at one point or another.

The idea behind the twice-a-year change of time began as a way to save on fuel and power during the World Wars. While it accomplished what the  government had hoped it would, it's become more of a pain in the rear in recent history, especially here in New England

It's even come up, from time to time, as a topic in our local legislature. Maine lawmakers have discussed eliminating the tradition of the Fall back/Spring ahead, but nothing has ever come of those conversations.

Read More: Can You Believe Half The Gov't Finally Voted Stop Changing Clocks

President-elect Trump recently discussed taking up that mantle (of eliminating Daylight Saving Time) as one of his first business items when he takes office in January. This week, he took to social media to share his reasoning.

"The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation."

But there are others who disagree with the idea, saying that it would actually be more expensive in the long run. According to American Statistician, Nate Silver, who took to X to explain some of the repercussions eliminating DST would have, there would be a great deal of us would be in the dark for longer, especially here in Maine.

"Eliminating Daylight Savings Time is a terrible idea. I ran the numbers, and it would cost the average American 40 minutes of waking daylight per year in the summer. "

In his breakdown on the subject on his website, Silver makes the point that this could have an effect on not only commutes but businesses as well, especially since it would mean that people would likely have to adjust the times when they're awake vs asleep based on when the times the sun would actually be up.

"However, commutes start at 7:45 a.m. in Bangor, Maine, so far east that it “should” really be in the Atlantic Time Zone like Nova Scotia. Having spent a fair amount of time “Down East,” you can see this in action: Maine gets up super early, but it can be hard to find a restaurant open past 8 p.m. for dinner. In other cities, though — most notably, Las Vegas, where the average commute doesn’t begin until almost 9 a.m. — lifestyle factors or the nature of the dominant industry in the city dominates other considerations."

There are certainly pros and cons to both keeping it and changing it, and a change would take some time to get used to.

What are your thoughts?