Since I'm involved in agriculture rather than manufacturing or service I don't pay much attention to clocks. What matters is the sun, and that's quite variable at this latitude. I rise with the birds, who anticipate sunrise and shriek their joy, and tend my animals who are more than ready to begin their day too. And, like them, I rest during the day when it is too long, and often too warm, but work again in the late afternoon and evening with the lingering light of mid summer.

Still, I have to deal with the rest of the world and they are clock watchers. It's a real pain for them that clocks change due to political shenanigans.

If you cursed daylight savings time for throwing a wrench in your schedule this weekend, you have Congress to thank. It extended daylight savings time last year by four weeks, citing claims of reduced crime, fewer automobile accidents, more light for summer activities, and the kicker, energy savings. . .

However. . . a new report from the University of California at Santa Barbara . . . sees an associated energy use increase with DTS. Studying over 7 million electric bills from Indiana, which up until 2006 did not uniformly adopt DTS, the researchers found that electricity usage actually went up between 1 to 4 percent, costing Indiana utility users $8.6 million.

An article in the Toronto Star, matter-of-factly titled “Why daylight saving time is bad for the environment,” puts the study’s conclusions in power-plant terms: “Expanded nationally, those results would translate to at least two coal-fired electricity plants pumping power just to feed the daylight savings habit.”

The more sunlight we use the less we need electric lights on — or so the thinking goes. But the more we’re up and moving around with the sun the more we run our air conditioning systems and appliances, which consume far greater amounts of electricity than a few light bulbs.

Congress has agreed to review their decision to extend daylight savings times once the Department of Energy audits its effects. In the meantime, enjoy the extra sunlight.

I don't get it. These folks have too much power, and too much time on their hands. Think of all the energy we'd save if we sent congress home.