The problem with California is that if there were more states to the west of us (instead of the Pacific Ocean) we'd probably be in the same time zone as Arizona. Dark early IS just wrong. I think of how much more electricity we use now to keep lights and businesses active when it gets dark at 4:30pm or 5:00pm instead of an hour later. For better or worse, most of us aren't farmers anymore needing the morning sun for our jobs. Most work & live life in later hours than we did 100+ years ago. Those who live quite north (cities like Sapporo or St Petersburg Russia) may have colder, darker winters... but that 10-11pm summer sunset sure is nice.
Why? All of California is very naturally in the Pacific Time Zone. Any shift to the Mountain zone is strictly a 'social engineering' effort. Early sunset is not more wrong or evil than late sunrise. Your problem seems to be more about geography than clock standards. With modern efficient lighting, very little. If that hour costs a meaningful fraction of a facility's energy bill, then it will save vastly more energy by modernizing its lighting system. That single hour is also less costly than the additional hours extending until 9 or 10 pm of modern shopping malls. Think about it. DST effectively pushes the clock eastwards, but common business and activity hours are moving the opposite, westwards. Stores that opened at 6 or 7 a.m. two generations ago, are now opening at 8, 9, or even 10 a.m. now. Instead of closing stores at 5 or 6 p.m. and rolling up the sidewalks, stores are now staying open to 8 or 9 p.m. DST advocates are trying to 'social engineer' in one direction, but people and businesses are rebelling and moving the other. Just stop it. Fix the clock. Stop this twice-annual circadian disruption with its accompanying increased accident rate and health problems. And let people adjust their own circadian clock around their own personal needs. Those summer hours may be nice, but are just temporary. The payback is brutal six months later, when they have only 6 hours of daylight. No clock adjustments can change that. It is a geography issue.
Source: Another busy night at all the British henge sites as staff work all night to move the stones forward backward by an hour. by lychgateMar 25
