Wyoming lawmakers to consider switch to daylight saving time

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming state lawmakers in the new legislative session will have another opportunity to permanently shift the state to daylight saving time.

A change to Mountain Daylight Time would essentially add an extra hour of daylight between November and March, The Casper Star Tribune reported Tuesday.

The shift would not take effect immediately if approved by state lawmakers, who are scheduled to meet in Cheyenne beginning Feb. 10.

The federal government would also need to ratify the change.

Republican Rep. Dan Laursen sponsored House Bill 44, which says the biannual time change between Mountain Standard Time and Mountain Daylight Time disrupts commerce and the daily schedules of residents.

Laursen's bill closely resembles similar legislation he proposed during the 2019 legislative session, which passed the House of Representatives but failed on two consecutive votes in the Senate.

The previous bill would have allowed Wyoming to permanently shift to Mountain Daylight Time only if neighboring states including Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado, made the change as well.

Unless Congress changes federal law, states can only opt out of daylight savings time, and then only if the state inhabits a single time zone.

Hawaii and Arizona are the only states to have chosen that step, although 26 states have considered abandoning the annual change to standard time.