The United States has long been a leader in innovative technology, but we've fallen behind China and several European nations in the quest to develop the most promising industry of the 21st century — clean energy technology.

The House version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (otherwise known as the Waxman-Markey climate change bill) contains a clean energy goal that's crucial to rebuilding our competitiveness. It calls for 20 percent of our electricity being produced by renewable methods by the year 2020, while another 5 percent in electricity would be saved by energy efficiency measures.

A Senate committee version of the bill would require only 15 percent of our electricity to be produced by renewable methods by 2021, and only 4 percent to be saved through energy efficiency. Frankly, the House version may still not be ambitious enough, but it would be better than the Senate version at reducing greenhouse gases and it would be more effective at steering American innovation toward clean energy.

According to media reports, this is one portion of the House bill that the majority of senators may be willing to adopt without compromising away other good ideas. This petition is intended to press individual senators toward adopting the House clean energy targets without weakening other parts of the bill.