Permanent daylight time would push Anchorage's winter sunrise past 11 a.m.

The House voted 308-117 on Tuesday to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time the year-round default nationwide. Alaska's sole U.S. House member, Nick Begich, was among the yes votes. It still needs Senate approval and the president's signature to take effect.

For Alaska, permanent daylight saving time is really a choice about which clock to live under all winter — and the version the U.S. House just passed would push the state's already-dark winter mornings an hour later.

Permanent daylight time means keeping the spring-forward clock all year. In Anchorage, that moves the winter solstice sunrise from about 10:14 a.m. to about 11:14 a.m., and sunset from about 3:41 p.m. to about 4:41 p.m. The trade sharpens inland: in Fairbanks, the Dec. 21 sunrise would shift from about 10:58 a.m. to nearly noon, with sunset moving from about 2:40 to 3:40 p.m.

Utqiagvik would see no winter solstice sunrise either way. The sun stays below the horizon there in late December, and permanent daylight time wouldn't create daylight where polar night removes it — it would only change the clock label on the twilight.

Federal law already lets states stay on standard time year-round, as Hawaii and most of Arizona do, but it bars year-round daylight time without an act of Congress. So the federal bill would push Alaska toward later light unless the Legislature chose to opt out.