In posing the question, "What was the effect of policy entrepreneurs' use of a scenario on federal efforts to clean up the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone?" I explain the momentum that leads to and sustains the theoretical phenomena of punctuated equilibrium.

After establishing that the policy process in this case was measurable as a statistically significant case of punctuated equilibrium, I defined a scenario as an organized form of discourse with a plot with three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. To analyze the policy process, I plotted a narrative.

The narrative placed the policy story in the context of the dynamic theory of punctuated equilibrium and addressed the nuances of scenario used in the policy process. In using a policy story to show how scenario usage hastens change, I found scenario usage and punctuated equilibrium united in a cause-and-effect relationship.