Daylight-saving extension draws heat over safety, cost
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON ? A move by Congress to extend daylight-saving time for four weeks to save energy has prompted an outcry from parent groups and the nation\'s airline industry, which warn it could be dangerous and costly.
   
Lawmakers from the House and Senate agreed Thursday to include a provision ? part of a larger energy bill ? that would start daylight-saving time three weeks earlier, the second Sunday in March, and end it a week later, the first Sunday of November. Kids would have an hour more daylight for trick-or-treating on Halloween.

"This is a huge victory for sunshine lovers," says Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., co-author of the bipartisan measure the House passed April 21. The change would become permanent in spring 2007 if Congress passes the overall energy bill, which is far from certain. President Bush says he wants an energy bill, but his administration opposes an extension of daylight-saving time.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has warned it would "raise serious international harmonization problems for the transportation industry."

The Air Transport Association, which represents major U.S. airlines, argues that it would throw U.S. international schedules further out of sync with Europe. It says a two-month extension, the initial proposal, would cost the U.S. airline industry $147 million and disrupt overseas travel.

"This is an ultimate disaster for airlines and all of our customers, who will be horribly inconvenienced," says James May, the group\'s president and CEO.

The National PTA is also opposed, arguing that more kids will go to school in the dark, raising the potential for more accidents or abductions. Yet retailers say it would boost business, as people shop more, and improve the nation\'s fitness. Tom Cove, president of the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, says kids will play outside rather than watch TV.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., co-author of the extension, says he added it to the energy bill because it would save electricity. He cites a 1970s Department of Transportation study that says it would save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil daily.