PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – President Donald Trump, who owns 11 golf courses in the United States, has teed up a plan to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
Trump touts bill that would make daylight saving time permanent
At Bide-a-Wee golf course in Portsmouth most golfers WAVY spoke with said they would enjoy another hour of daylight on a warm evening in November.
“I would absolutely love that. The longer daylight makes you more time on the golf course. Be great, be wonderful. More things can get done in a day before it gets dark. I think it’s a great idea,” said Aaron Landry.
A bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, which failed last year, is now part of a larger transportation funding package.
The PGA is throwing its weight behind the Act, which says that states that do not exempt themselves before it takes effect would lock their clocks on the time observed between March and November.
From golf to gardening, the extra sun is something business and plants can grow on.
Tommy Heath is the owner of Norfolk Feed and Seed in Portsmouth. He says that an extra hour of daylight for fall plants can determine life or sudden death for certain plants. “Well, that’s the thing. You have a little more time to manage, I guess, and you’d have more time off in the afternoon and evening, to prepare for cooler situations. Frost. Something like that. You know, where you wouldn’t generally. So, you’d be able to maintain your crops a little bit, or you’re not going to change the weather, obviously,” said Health, whose family has owned the business for nearly 80 years.
Jimmy Gaffos enjoys planting and eating easy-to-grow Contender Bush Beans. He would not dare waste a single minute of sunshine. “Because I like it being daylight longer in it. I think it helps plants out. And I think it just helps a little bit of everything out,” said Gaffos.
Joe Gatling, a golfer and a gardener, favors year-round Daylight Saving Time. “This would give me more opportunities … in golf [and] gardening]that is a little bit longer, so I’ll go for it,” said Gatling.
Sleep specialists disagree with the proposed change. They say those early morning hours of daylight are just what the body needs to help you sleep at night. They also say your blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol levels could improve with standard time.
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