When I was a kid, fall was one of my favorite times of year. The turning leaves and cooler temperatures were among my favorites, but Halloween probably pushed fall to the top of the list. The one thing that I was always frustrated with is that Daylight Saving Time ended right before Halloween. My evening of collecting Snicker bars and Smarties was always cut short because of how early the sun would go down. That isn’t the case anymore.Last year the Energy Policy Act of 2005 went into effect which totally changed how we had done things for the past 20 years. Instead of starting Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April, we now start on the second Sunday in March. We now end Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in November rather than the last Sunday in October. The net change on this is about a month.The main rationale behind this recent change was to get a break on energy consumption. There is some controversy on whether this change actually accomplishes what it set out to do. A study was done last year by the California Energy Commission’s Demand Analysis Office that concluded that the extension of Daylight Saving Time in 2007 had little effect on energy consumption in California. The study just as easily could be flawed as could be based in fact. The fact that last year had no effect could be because of a warmer winter than average. It could be that California’s climate will have limited effect on energy savings. Without more research, not only in California but from a variety of regions of the United States, I’m not sure that we can conclude that it has been a total waste of time. Regardless of the findings, our little ghosts and goblins running around town will probably be happy for the extra hour of trick-or-treat time! What are your thoughts on the new Daylight Saving Time?