Modeling Us Energy Policy with Threshold 21: Understanding Energy Issues and Informing the U.s. Energy Policy Debate with T21, an Integrated Dynamic Simulation Tool.

The United States is about to face years of major, interrelated policy issues. Energy transition, peak oil, and the threat of global warming, together with heightened fears of terrorism, environmental and social issues are largely crowded out of public dialogue. What is needed is an analytical tool that addresses these issues in an integrated and transparent way. The Threshold 21 (T21) model customized to the USA, is such a tool. The purpose of this study is to analyze T21-USA, by highlighting its flexibility and transparency. The analysis shows that T21-USA is a good tool for understanding and analyzing validity, effectiveness and outcomes of complex energy policies. Despite its complexity, T21-USA is transparent and a user-friendly interface makes it an intuitive instrument that can be used by a broad audience, ranging from students to policy makers.