At least we did not switch to Central Time.

I LOVE DST, but as a kid, I sort of thought humans were messing around with something God had created and that it was a little unnatural to tinker with the clock. However, I greatly appreciate the extra sunlight in the evening.

I would appreciate it in the winter.

An informal poll published by my local (Philadelphia-region)paper this morning showed that >80% of respondents liked DST. Of course, sunrises and sunsets in Indiana will now be significantly later for Hoosiers than for Philadelphians (with Pennsylvania on EDT and Indiana on EST, they were roughly the same).

DST in Indiana is so illogical that I think its illogic simply confuses the Hoosiers who support it. The post you linked to greatly summarizes why it is a bad idea.

Hoosiers are all in for a very rude awakening when June/July arrive and those who work for a living have to start going to bed when it's still light outside.

Here in B-town, the sun had not yet fully set at 8:40. In April. DST is absolutely ridiculous, and if I hear one more person say "but we get more time this way!", my head will explode.

We don't get more time this way! We just change the time we get so that it will be light until 11:00 PM!

If at the end of the year, Indiana residents have not saved money on energy, maybe it will become possible to end the practice nationwide. I do not know whether most people turn their air conditioning down or off while they are at work in the summer, but if they do, it is possible that having another hour of natural light and heat in the evening, while people are at home, would counter whatever is said to be saved from keeping the lights off for another hour. (This would only be true if the darker, cooler morning would not reverse the extra cooling costs in the evening, but it isn't usually over 70 degrees in Indiana in a morning of the summer, so I wouldn't expect that to happen.)

Zach, do you have any idea whether DST is likely to increase the levels of ozone, or the harm caused by ozone, in Indianapolis? The ozone announcements in the summer ask people to pump gas and mow their grass in the evening, when it is cooler and the sun is lower. With DST, everyone will be doing those things when the sun and the temperature are a little higher. I don't know whether the darker, cooler mornings would even that out, though, and whether the result will be more dangerous (or more or less likely to comply with federal standards). Also, I would guess that as a result of DST, the time that people spend outside in the evening would be during a part of the solar day when the heat and ozone would be greater than it otherwise would have been.

I am in almost full accord with the negative sentiments expressed here regarding DST excepting one word, that word being "finally". We Hoosiers tried EDT before, it was in effect here in 1969 and 1970. But in those long ago days it lasted six months a year, not eight as it will be next year. Getting up in EDT darkness in April and October is bad enough, but the prospect of having to do so in March and November come 2007 really stinks. Its enough to have me consider moving to La Porte.