Mexico City — Mexico’s Senate has approved the Time Zone Bill proposed by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which eliminates daylight saving time as of October 30, 2022.
With 59 votes in favor, 25 against and 12 abstentions, the Senate endorsed the ruling to end daylight saving time, which had been approved by the Chamber of Deputies on October 26.
Most legislators considered that abolishing daylight saving time, in effect since April 1996, helps to improve the health of the Mexican population, and that it had produced minimal energy and economic savings.
“The time zone law, published on December 29, 2001 in the Official Gazette, and the decree establishing the seasonal schedule applied in the country will be repealed,” the Senate said in a statement.
The new law will establish a seasonal schedule only for the states and municipalities in the vicinity of the US border.
In addition, the law enables local congresses to present an initiative to Congress to choose their own schedule, after consulting the local population, a measure which aims to guarantee the exercise of human and fundamental rights through the acceptance of public policies under a democratic principle.
Municipalities in the northern border states of Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas will apply the meridian 75 degrees west of Greenwich.
Those municipalities are Acuña, Allende, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jiménez, Morelos, Nava, Ocampo, Piedras Negras, Villa Unión and Zaragoza, Anáhuac, Nuevo Laredo, Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso and Matamoros.
For the state of Baja California, the meridian 105 degrees west of Greenwich time zone will be applied.
Those municipalities in the northern border region will observe daylight saving time between the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November.
The president of the Senate’s Energy Commission, of the ruling Morena party, Rocío Abreu, said that daylight saving time was first implemented in Mexico in 1996 to generate economic and energy savings, as well as the reduction in the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity.
Xóchitl Gálvez, opposition senator of the National Action Party (PAN), said the elimination of daylight saving time goes against the global trend, since its implementation reduces child obesity by allowing more daylight time for children to play outside or in parks, as well as reducing the incidence of crime.
