Most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on 3-9-08. This is 3 weeks earlier than in past years. In August of 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007. Daylight Saving Time is extended one month and begins for most of the United States at 2am on the Second Sunday in March to 2am on the First Sunday of November.
While in Paris, Ben Franklin was the first to propose the idea of Daylight Savings Time. By increasing the available amount of daylight during the summer and decreasing it during the winter season, Franklin hoped to provide the world with a greater opportunity of doing productive work during the summer months, as opposed to the cold and dreary days of winter.
During Daylight Saving Time, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer. The reason DST works is because its saves energy due to less artificial light needed during the evening hours—clocks are set one hour ahead during the spring, and one hour back to standard time in the autumn.