America’s continuing growing demand for energy is facing an upward climb of oil and gas prices, competition for energy from countries like China and India, and concerns about CO2 emissions, global warming and its impacts. We are now engaged in heightened discussions about energy use and alternative and renewable sources of energy in the U.S. political landscape. Unfortunately, the space for broad and honest debate is often clouded by political ideologies, difficulty in understanding the data that is available, and biased presentations by special interests that focus narrowly on aspects of the nature and severity of the challenges and how best to address them.

At this seminar, the Millennium Institute will unveil the new Threshold 21-USA (T21-USA) model that provides a transparent and comprehensive means to assess the broader benefits and impacts of the various options in a non-partisan manner. It is a dynamic framework that helps guide energy policy formulation by showing results through long term and across-the-board scenarios. T21-USA informs the policymaking process by revealing the results of alternative energy policies and options in the future, and demonstrating their implications for the economy, the environment, and society under different assumptions. The meeting will show how several current energy policies will work out over time and discuss how others can be developed and tested. It will include a discussion of the model’s structure and relationships by experts in the public and private sectors. Realistic applications of the model will also be presented.