WCNC Go Green WCNC.com

HUMBOLDT, Iowa -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards on Friday unveiled a plan to help train 150,000 American workers each year in "green collar" jobs, allowing them to reap the benefits of the nation's growing energy economy.

Edwards, speaking to about 200 people at a restaurant in Humboldt in northern Iowa, said the country must reform its use of energy and end its addiction to foreign oil. As part of the process, he said workers should be trained for new job opportunities in the growing energy industry.

"We can turn the crisis of climate change into an opportunity for a new energy economy, right here in America -- and Iowa in particular," Edwards said, making reference to Iowa's lead role in producing ethanol and other biofuels as well as wind-generated energy.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, pointed to a need for skilled workers in research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon emissions control.

"We can put some of those jobs into places they are needed so badly," he said. "We've got to make sure that our workers are trained to do them."

His proposals for investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency technology, he said, would create over one million jobs around the nation. Those plans include training and placing 150,000 green collar workers, and creating 50,000 government-subsidized jobs to help hard-to-hire workers learn new skills related to the energy sector.

Edwards said those goals meld with his plans to deal with climate change. If elected, he has proposed capping global warming pollution and reducing it by 80 percent by 2050. His initiatives would include selling carbon pollution permits to build a fund that would help family farms capture some of the benefits of the growing energy economy.

"I think this issue of global warming is a crisis," he said. "It's a very serious issue that America has got to be leading on."

The plan Edwards announced on Friday would also:

-- Encourage partnerships between states, businesses, labor unions, community groups and educators to train workers in energy sector jobs.

-- Provide funding for community colleges that partner with companies to develop job training programs in the energy industry.

-- Create Green Career Academies to help high school students prepare for college and energy sector jobs.

During the town-hall style meeting, he related America's current energy policies to problems with extremist governments in the Middle East, saying that because of the country's addiction to oil,

"We empower them, we drive up demand, we drive up the prices."

If America broke its addiction, he said, it would have the power to transform that area of the world.

"All of a sudden these bad leaders and bad governments have got to change to survive," he said. "They are going to have to educate their kids and reform their economy."

At a later stop in nearby Algona, hundreds of people packed a middle school gym where Edwards answered questions about immigration reform, universal health care and ending the war in Iraq. To make the right changes, he said it's important to get a Democrat in the White House, "but it's not enough."

"We need to strengthen our numbers in the House and Senate. That is the way to actually move this agenda," he said.

Edwards also asked voters to weigh which Democratic presidential candidate has the best chance of winning the general election.

Asked about filling White House staff positions, Edwards promised to promote capable, confident people, not "a bunch of political hacks."

"I think the answer to what we've seen over the last six or seven years is transparency," he said. "I don't think it's right for us to have a government that's being run in secret, which is what has happened with this president."

Edwards is in the midst of a three-day campaign trip to Iowa.