Daylight saving debate takes another turn

http://south-west-news.whereilive.com.au

A sustainability expert has said daylight saving in southeast Queensland would increase the cost of people's electricity bills.

Dr John Cole of the Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development, which is based in Springfield, believes winding clocks forward for more sunlight might encourage greater use of airconditioners, meaning more power and higher energy costs.

Premier Anna Bligh reignited the issue earlier this month, asking southeast Queenslanders whether they wanted daylight saving but Dr Cole, the founding head of the State Government's Office of Clean Energy, said it was ``impractical'' for the region's sub-tropical climate.

``What daylight saving means is kids come home from school an hour earlier in the hottest part of the day and we put the airconditioner on, plus the plasma television, and energy spikes at a time we're trying to moderate it,'' he said.

``Our lives are far more energy intensive and it costs us, the taxpayer and the energy consumer.

``Fifteen years ago only 10 percent of people in southeast Queensland had airconditioners in their houses and now it's 70 percent.''

Queenslanders working in both time zones would also have to work longer hours, Dr Cole said.

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COMMENT: Dr Cole might be an erudite Doctor of Philosophy but his scaremongering on daylight saving belies his shallow knowledge of the facts. U.S.studies show that with daylight saving electricity use is reduced, pedestrian accidents are reduced, crime is down and family, sporting and social contact thrives. Dr Cole would do well to study the outcomes of the International Meridian Conference of 1884 held in Washington DC and examine the principles and reasons for establishing the world's 24 standard time zones.  If Dr Cole thinks that a Queenslander having to work within the state across two time zones would be disadvantaged by a split time zone, what about the hundreds of thousands of residents of southeast Queensland who face the same dilemma by being out of kilter with the southern states for 6 months of the year, every year? Perhaps, Dr Cole could go to the Antarctic for 6 months of each year followed by 6 months at the North Pole and live permanently in the Dark Ages - where his opposition to daylight saving seems to have emanated from!