A while ago some scientists did a test on whether daylight savings time actually saves energy and found, that yes it did. However, the methodology by which they did the test was bad, so basically the results meant nothing. Nobody really cared that the results weren't true though. Therefore, the government saw the results of the test and decided to move the switch to daylight savings time back to save more energy, and so it has come early for the past couple years.
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You see, as they say, it's because of the Climate Change (Global Warming!). ;)
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The American government has moved up DST since last year and extended it, on premises that DST saves energy. Studies have shown this not to be the case.
Source(s):
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/does-daylight...

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Because Congress thinks that daylight savings time will save energy. The thought goes that because people have more daylight, they use less lighting. The truth is far from that. In fact, it wastes energy:

"Up until two years ago, only 15 of Indiana's 92 counties set their clocks an hour ahead in the spring and an hour back in the fall. The rest stayed on standard time all year, in part because farmers resisted the prospect of having to work an extra hour in the morning dark."

This was studied by University of California-Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant.

"Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills."

The reason is because people use air conditioning on hot afternoons and heating on cool mornings. What's more, is people have to use their headlights in the morning because they go to work in the dark, which offsets not using headlights in the evening.

Also, there has been some studies that showed auto accidents go up the first week after daylight savings time because everybody is so groggy from the time change.
Source(s):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120406767043794825.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

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