Coal-fired electricity generation climbed this year in the U.S. for the first time since the Obama administration, spurred by spiking natural gas prices, a setback for the Biden climate agenda and a sign that the president’s drilling crackdown may be backfiring.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Monday that electricity generated by coal-fired plants is expected to jump by 22% in 2021 over last year’s levels for the first year-over-year increase since 2014.

When Regina Romero took office as the Democratic mayor of Tucson, Arizona, in 2019, she wanted her city to take action on climate change. Local building codes might have been a logical place to start: In the US, some 70 million buildings rely on fossil fuels that warm the planet, such as oil and gas, for heating and cooking. They generate a hefty 13 percent of national greenhouse gas emissions.

President Joe Biden would need to implement a massive tax on emissions and conduct a near elimination of natural gas to meet his climate goals, according to left-leaning environmental experts.

As the shale gas boom progresses in North America, and as other nations seek to develop their own gas reserves, communities around the world are engaged in fierce debates over whether to allow fracking and expand global trade of natural gas. The promise of jobs and economic benefits come up against concerns about the environmental and health effects of natural gas development, along with skirmishes over land rights.

The Biden administration has admitted to killing jobs in the fossil fuel industries, but insists that workers can find livelihoods in other, growing sectors, such as solar panels.

This Abridge News topic aggregates four unique arguments on different sides of the debate. Here are the quick facts to get you started:

THE QUICK FACTS

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is bucking many of the environmentalists who believe natural gas production perpetuates a world in which climate change is disproportionately hurting black communities.

Jackson is prodding local, state, and federal officials in Illinois to OK the construction of a $8.2 million, 30-mile natural gas pipeline built for a community, Axios noted in a report Monday addressing the reverend’s contrarian position.

The Pembroke, Illinois, pipeline would shuttle natural gas into an area of the state that suffers from high energy prices, according to Jackson.

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) — Trying to hold support in the manufacturing towns that helped him win the White House in 2016, President Donald Trump is showcasing growing efforts to capitalize on western Pennsylvania’s natural gas deposits by turning gas into plastics.