U.S. states considering a change to Atlantic Standard Time
All six of the
New England states in the northeastern U.S., currently in the Eastern Time Zone (with daylight saving time), have considered legislation to shift to UTC−04:00, equivalent to Atlantic Standard Time (with no observance of daylight saving time) or Eastern Daylight Time. Virtually all of this region is west of the theoretical western border of the zone at 67.5°W; only a small part of
Maine lies east of that meridian. A
Massachusetts commission concluded in 2017 that the benefits of changing to Atlantic Standard Time year-round would outweigh the disadvantages, provided that a majority of northeastern states make the same change. In May 2017, the
Maine Senate approved a change to AST, on the condition that there would be a referendum, and that Massachusetts and
New Hampshire must make the same switch. Also in 2017, the
New Hampshire House of Representatives approved a bill in favor of a regional change, but this was voted down by the
state's Senate. Similar bills have been put forward in
Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and
Vermont. In 2018,
Florida enacted into law the "Sunshine Protection Act", under which the state would observe daylight saving time year-round. Most of the state would permanently keep Eastern Daylight Time, which is equivalent to Atlantic Standard Time; the state's
panhandle region would move to year-round
Central Daylight Time. However, the change cannot take effect until it is passed into federal law by the
United States Congress. the bill was not brought to a vote in the House. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate in 2023. ==See also==