DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado continues to switch clocks back and forth even though the state passed legislation to stay on daylight saving time permanently in 2022.

The state hasn’t switched to permanent daylight saving time because federal law doesn’t currently allow states to be permanently on that time.

While Colorado can’t switch times just yet, here’s what daylight saving time would look like in Colorado if the law was amended.

Colorado wants to make daylight saving time permanent

To set the record straight: Colorado doesn’t want to get rid of daylight saving time, it wants to make it permanent.

This means that for some of the winter season, the sun wouldn’t rise in Colorado until after 8 a.m. It also means that the sun would never set before 5 p.m., with the earliest sunset of the year occurring in December at 5:35 p.m.

The summer hours would stay the same.

If Colorado took the opposite approach and opted out of daylight saving time, from November to March, the winter months would look like they do now where the sun would rise earlier and set sooner.

What’s the difference in sunlight?

While summer nights in Colorado would stay the same, opting into daylight saving time means the sun will set later in the winter, and opting out means the sun would set earlier.

Whether you want daylight saving time or not, you won’t get extra sunlight.

Standard time, which Colorado is in now, gives the morning more sunlight and the evening more darkness. On permanent daylight saving time, the mornings would be darker for longer and Colorado would have more sunlight in the evenings.

Regardless of how you slice it, there’s less sunlight in the winter than in the summer, and the only difference in this change to permanent DST is when the sun rises and sets.

States can only get rid of daylight saving time

States can get rid of daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to opt out of it. So far, only Hawaii and Arizona have opted out.

This means that their sunrises and sunsets through the summer are earlier.

Colorado wants to do the opposite, but the state can’t switch until it’s passed federally. Federal lawmakers introduced several bills to keep the whole country on daylight saving time permanently, but all have failed so far.

For now, Colorado will continue switching clocks back and forth.