Clocks roll back Sunday with the end of daylight saving time, but the bill to eliminate the clock change for good in Alaska is still rolling forward.
Senate Bill 6 would eliminate daylight saving time and petition the feds to switch Alaska to Pacific time. Rep. Wes Keller, a Wasilla Republican, chairs the interim subcommittee taking up the bill Friday morning.
“Primarily, just hearing, you know and getting more input,” Keller said.
He’s got some changes in mind that don’t affect the bill’s two core concepts, including a title change to put the Pacific time zonepart front and center.
“All of Alaska would be on the same time as Seattle” — for half the year — “And that would be great for commerce and everything; that’d be a great plan. And I never heard anybody that was against that plan. We just want to make sure, enhance that part of it. Make sure that it’s well discussed, and test that premise to see if it in fact it has the degree of support I believe it did. The testimony we had was all anti- getting rid of daylight saving time. Not anti- going on Pacific time, as I recall,” Keller said.
The Senate passed the bill 16-4 in March.
Jeremy Hsieh is the deputy managing editor of the KTOO newsroom in Juneau. He’s a podcast fiend who’s worked in journalism since high school as a reporter, editor and television producer. He ran Gavel Alaska for 360 North from 2011 to 2016, and is big on experimenting with novel tools and mediums (including the occasional animated gif) to tell stories and demystify the news. Jeremy’s an East Coast transplant who moved to Juneau in 2008.
