Get todays start date from in UTC for ET (EDT or EST)

est_date.py

    date = "2018-08-30"
    year, month, day = date.split('-')
    utc = pytz.utc
    eastern = timezone('US/Eastern')
    # fmt = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z%z' # returns 2018-08-29 20:00:00 EDT-0400
    fmt = '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ'
    utc_dt = datetime(year=int(year), month=int(month), day=int(day), hour=0, minute=0, second=0, tzinfo=utc)
    loc_dt = utc_dt.astimezone(eastern)
    start_date = loc_dt.strftime(fmt) #2018-08-29T20:00:00Z
    utc_dt = datetime(year=int(year), month=int(month), day=int(day), hour=23, minute=59, second=59, tzinfo=utc)
    loc_dt = utc_dt.astimezone(eastern)
    end_date = loc_dt.strftime(fmt) #2018-08-30T19:59:59Z