Update, Jan. 24, 2018:
State Rep. Rick Tillis has filed a new bill to make Daylight Saving Time the standard time year-round in Tennessee.
The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Steven Dickerson in the Senate.
Update, Jan. 22, 2018:
State Rep. Rick Tillis has withdrawn his bill to keep Tennessee on Daylight Saving Time year-round.
Tillis, R-Lewisburg, introduced the bill earlier this month. He told WBIR switching from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time is "a huge inconvenience, there's no benefit to it."
Tillis withdrew the bill on Thursday, Jan. 18, just over a week after he introduced it.
Update, Jan. 12, 2018:
After our original story aired, Rep. Tillis reached out to WBIR to tell us that the text of his bill is incorrect. His actual intention is to keep Tennessee on Daylight Saving Time year-round, not exempt the state from it.
Rep. Tillis says he's working to get the text within the bill corrected.
Original story, Jan. 11, 2018:
Every year as we turn our clocks forward and back, we switch between Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time.
A Tennessee lawmaker wants to stay on Standard Time all year and be exempt from Daylight Saving.
"It's a huge inconvenience, there's no benefit to it," said Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg. "So that's the primary reason why."
According to the Department of Transportation, Standard Time is November to March, and the rest of the year is Daylight Saving. The department oversees time zones in the United States. According to the DOT, Daylight Saving became law in 1966, and its main purpose is to save energy. Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only two states that don't participate.
If Tennessee didn't spring forward like the majority of the country, surrounding states could be in different time zones. For example, East Tennessee could be an hour behind North Carolina, even though they are in the same Eastern Time Zone.
"It could create some issues, so that's one thing that I've discussed and I'm sensitive to," Tillis said. "That's why I have made a concerted effort to get the bordering states to get on board with this."
Several states have introduced bills over the years to opt out.
Tillis said a bill like his was introduced in Tennessee in 2015, but it never made it to the floor.
"So that's the difficulty I see here for us," Tillis said. "I'll start making my rounds of talking to other state representatives."
Here is a link to the introduced bill.