You’ve all heard me swoon at the fact that I don’t have to change my clocks back and forth anymore since we moved to Hawaii. It’s a good thing. But I was surprised and appalled to read Meg’s post over at Get In, Hang On. She references an article from the WSJ that addresses the environmental impact of daylight savings time.

When Indiana made the switch to daylight savings time a couple of years ago it confused the cows (hee!) and gave scientists a chance to study the change in electrical usage.

Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.

Kind of makes you wonder if the electric companies are involved in the whole clock switcharoo, doesn’t it??