"Benjamin Franklin was right about candles, in other words, but he did not consider air-conditioners"

So apparently I was premature in giving props to W. for the shortening of daylight savings. This interesting study conducted by the guys who wrote this NYTimes op-ed tested the efficiency of daylight savings. The thought process was that we'll save more energy if we use sunlight as opposed to electrically powered lighting. But apparently the energy savings did not play out in Indiana. Indiana's recent adoption of daylight savings in 2007 provided the authors with a natural experiment to test the purported "savings" element of "daylight savings."

While daylight time reduces demand for household lighting, it increases demand for heating in the early spring and late fall (in the mornings) and, even more important, for cooling on summer evenings.

So much for my shout out to W.