Ostensibly to conserve fuel since one less day of commuting will mean less gas used, apparently, but how many people are going to increase their fuel consumption during those three day weekends?

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Starting next month, it will be “TGIT” for Utah state employees. As in: “Thank God It’s Thursday.”

In a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing the state’s energy costs and commuters’ gasoline expenses, Utah is about to become the first state to switch to a four-day workweek for thousands of government employees.

They will put in 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, and have Fridays off, freeing them to golf, shop, spend time with the kids or do anything else that strikes their fancy. They will get paid the same as before.

“One of the jokes is that one of the biggest benefits will be for golf courses,” said Ryan Walker, 49, an information technology director. He said he is looking forward to tackling items on his long-neglected “honey-do” list (As in: “Honey, do this” and “Honey, do that"); camping; and traveling more around the state.

Traveling more around the state?  Doesn’t sound like he’ll be conserving fuel.

So will this work?  Doesn’t seem like it would.  If they’re keeping state offices and such open an extra two hours, is that not an extra two hours of energy consumption for the other four days of the week?  And an extra two hours of government vehicle usage?

Seems like a pretty dumb idea to me.