Why does arizona not participate in daylight savings

Timeanddate notes that DST is "largely unncessary" due to Arizona's hot climate and that the argument against extending the daylight hours is that people prefer to do their activities in cooler evening temperatures.

The only other state that does not observe daylight saving time is Hawaii, which exempted itself in While Congress is the only entity that can change the length of DST observance, at least 45 states have proposed legislation since asking to either be exempted from DST or to establish permanent DST.

Most of the proposals have not passed. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent across the country. A study by the American Journal of Public Health found an estimated fewer fatal car crashes during daylight savings time, including involving pedestrians and involving vehicle occupants.

In addition, research published in the European Review , National Library of Medicine and by the Mayo clinic found daylight savings helped reduce risk of cardiac issues, stroke and seasonal depression and studies published by the International Journal Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health found an increase in children's physical activity during DST.

The history of daylight saving is tied to energy conservation. Switching to DST in the summer means more sunlight at night, which in turn means homes don't have to turn on lights as early. Over the course of the last years, the United States including Arizona has gone on Daylight Saving time in both World War 1 and World War 2, but then gone off after the wars were over. In , a more permanent federal law was enacted to help with the oil shortages of that time. But Arizona asked for — and was eventually granted an exemption.

According to an Arizona Republic editorial from , the reason was the state's extreme heat. If Arizona were to observe Daylight Saving Time, the sun would stay out until 9 p. Another Arizona Republic editorial from stated, "Drive-in theaters, the parents of small children, the bars, the farmers and those who do business with California" were against Daylight Saving time while "power companies, the evening golfers, the late risers, and the people with business interests on the Eastern seaboard" were for it.

But don't be fooled by Arizona's DST stance. Not every corner of Arizona is exempt from Daylight Saving Time today. If all of Arizona were to re-evaluate its stance and choose to observe DST, here's what would change. It lies in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. To confuse matters more, there is also an even smaller Navajo Nation territory within the Hopi Nation within the Navajo Nation.

In addition to this, there is another Hopi area adjacent to the main Hopi Nation territory. As a result, if driving the correct route from the Arizona state border through both Navajo and Hopi areas to the other side one can end up changing one's clock 7 times!

For example: Tuba City Navajo and Moenkopi Hopi are only a couple of miles apart, but they have a 1-hour time difference during the summer. Jeddito Navajo , in the middle of Hopi Nation territory, is 1 hour ahead of the surrounding areas during summer.

The Act gives every state or territory the right to decide if it wants to use DST. Because of Arizona's hot climate, DST is largely considered unnecessary. The argument against extending the daylight hours into the evening is that people prefer to do their activities in the cooler evening temperatures.