Wyoming is officially all-in on wanting to make daylight saving time permanent

Wyoming is officially all-in on wanting to make daylight saving time permanent, but will it happen?

Gov. Mark Gordon officially signed the bill on Monday.

Similar measures failed in the Wyoming Legislature before, but recently there has been a ton of interest. People have said they are disgusted when the clock moves ahead an hour then later in the year it goes back, said state Rep. Eric Barlow, R-Campbell/Converse.

The Utah Legislature voted in favor of making the change a few weeks ago then Wyoming legislators followed suit at its recent budget session. No fewer than four western states need to do the same before they can petition the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to give them the green light to make the change.

House Bill 44 or Enrolled Act 87, considers the western states to be Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Daylight saving bills failed in Colorado and South Dakota, but one was signed into law in Idaho. Nebraska has suspended its legislative session due to COVID-19 and the Montana and North Dakota legislatures have yet to meet.

On the federal level, a bill that would allow states to make any changes related to daylight saving time at anytime, the Daylight Act, was introduced in the U.S. House in 2019 then was sent to the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce where it has sat for a year.

As it currently stands, states need federal approval to make any changes with daylight saving time. But with COVID-19 taking over the headlines, the change is unlikely to be made this year.