Next Sunday, October 30, 2022, it will be the last time that Mexicans have to set their clocks back. The Senate has permanently put an end to daylight saving time, a measure that has been in place since 1996 and that consists of moving the clock forward on the first Sunday in April and back on the last Sunday in October each year. In this way, the country remains in winter time, in contrast to other countries such as the United States, which seek to remain in summer time.
With 59 votes in favour, 25 against and 12 abstentionsthe legislators supported the proposal sent by the Chamber of Deputies in September, although it contemplates an exception for the 33 municipalities of the border strip with the United States so that they keep the summer time in order not to affect the commercial exchange.
✅ With 56 votes in favor, 29 against and four abstentions, the reserved articles are approved, under the terms of the opinion that creates the Time Zones Law in the United Mexican States.
– Mexican Senate (@senadomexicano) October 26, 2022
From an energy point of view, the justification for daylight saving time was to take more advantage of sunlight and thus make less use of lights in houses and buildings, an argument that was not enough for those who advocated its repeal. Rocío Abreu Artiñano, president of the Energy Commission in the Senate, said in the tedious session to discuss the permanence of the time change, that energy savings have represented less than 1% of the energy consumed each year, with which “has not met its objective, but it has produced negative impacts on the health of the population.”
The debate, which has been taking place since the beginning of the year, lasted for several hours between the senators. Xóchitl Gálvez, senator of the opposition National Action party, mentioned that the opinion goes against what is happening in the world in this matter, since at the international level the schedule that is eliminated is winter, since summer time reduces obesity. childish. “You have more daylight hours where women and children can be in the park”; In addition, it reduces violence and criminal incidence ”she said early this Wednesday.
There is no scientific evidence to show that the time change causes health problems. The ruling to eliminate daylight saving time does not have deep technical support and is to once again comply with a request from the president: @XochitlGalvez pic.twitter.com/unx6RAu2AQ
— PAN Senators (@SenadoresdelPAN) October 26, 2022
So far, there is no conclusive data on energy savings. According to the Trust for Electricity Savings (FIDE), in 2018, the last data available before the López Obrador government began, the saving in electricity consumption was 945 gigawatts, with which “592,000 could be supplied. houses for an entire year, or power 8.3 million fluorescent lamps for 24 hours for an entire year,” says the agency.
Perhaps the most important saving is not economic, but environmental. A study by the National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energies indicates that in 2006, the application of summer time avoided emitting 1,427 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and there was a reduction in fuel consumption for the generation of electricity of 2,754 million barrels of oil.
The reform will enter into force on October 30 and indicates that the time for the entire country, based on the different time zones recognized in the national territory and in accordance with the agreements reached at the International Meridian Conference in 1884, which determined the zero meridian.
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