"Abolishing" DST means that there's no longer any PDT, just PST, MST, CST, EST... But abolishing DST while desiring to move to "summer time" just means, in practice, shifting the state from PST to MST.

> shifting the state from PST to MST

I’m not a lawyer, but from my reading of the respective regulations and the little case law that exists, I believe California has the legal authority to elect to move to Mountain time.

This is what Arizona did. They just went to MST. If California likes PDT, then MST is the exact same thing.

Wouldn't it be PT then?

Also why not just move to one zone west. POE Pacific ocean east time.

The states alone cannot, because the time zones are set by Federal regulation. See https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=6a1a124065df269aff....

Right, just like the states alone cannot make Schedule I substances legal for consumption and sale.

Except, of course, that half the country does it[1].

We are living in a strange country.

[1]http://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/state-marij...

Tell that to Indiana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Indiana

That article goes into a long history of the interplay between state and federal authority in terms of time zones - most of it Indiana acting within the bounds set by congress or petitioning congress to give them exemptions.