National Academy of Sciences Removes Climate Chapter of ‘Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence’ After Credible Allegations of Advocacy and Biased Science

     

       Science should not be co-opted by climate activism. It should be maintained as unbiased as possible. That issue has been front and center lately as the National Academy of Sciences decides to remove a climate chapter after credible allegations of advocacy and biased science. Neil Shubin is the President of the National Academy of Sciences. He is an evolutionary biologist and veteran of many paleontology expeditions. I got to see him speak in the 2010s when he was on a speaking tour touting his discovery of transition fossils between fish and amphibians on a remote Arctic island. He was then known as “Darwin’s bulldog” for being a fierce advocate for evolutionary science. Being an advocate for science is not a political position, but being an advocate for policy may be a political position. Shubin suggested it was in a recent interview and, of course, with the decision to pull the chapter, a month before that.

     In an interview with Science Magazine Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp, Shubin noted:

“You can’t remove partisanship from things entirely and you can’t remove policy from things entirely. These aren’t clean lines.”

“The perception surrounding the climate chapter warranted a new examination and that the Academy needed to take a "new fresh look" at the process behind it, Shubin said during the interview.”

     The idea was to pull it, review the process, and look at biases and whether the chapter constitutes advocacy. The climate report chapter was entitled “Attribution of Extreme Weather and Climate Events and Their Impacts 2026.” American Energy Institute CEO and founder Jason Isaac and others see it as vindication that science is compromised by activists, but that is a bit extreme in my view. I will also include Roger Pielke Jr.’s analysis of the situation as well.

"Neil Shubin just admitted that the National Academies' climate chapter in the 'Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition,' was never impartial science," American Energy Institute CEO and founder Jason Isaac, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.”

"It was litigation strategy dressed up in a lab coat. In his own words, the authors were 'associated more with the plaintiffs' side than with the defense side,' and the chapter skipped the conflict-of-interest review NASEM [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine] claims makes its work credible in the first place," Isaac continued.

     The issue was brought to light by the conservative watchdog organization, The Oversight Project. They noted that sections closely resembled a 2020 climate attribution paper co-authored by Columbia Law professor Michael Burger. Burger serves as executive director of Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and as counsel at Sher Edling, a law firm representing state and local governments in climate litigation against major energy companies. He is acknowledged as a source for the report. So, this lawyer is suing energy companies and writing chapters for NAS? Is that advocacy? I would say it depends on how they are connected, what is written, and the details of the lawsuits. At the very least, it seems to be a clear conflict of interest. Burger is not the only one being put in the spotlight, as Daily Caller notes:

“Notably, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had written the foreward to the fourth edition of the manual, prompting calls to recuse from hearing the Suncor Energy v. Boulder County climate litigation with the rest of the high court. The Judicial Crisis Network called on Kagan in July to recuse herself from the case, arguing that her foreword to the manual raised questions about her impartiality.”

     The main issue is so-called attribution science, which is laden with uncertainties and more easily manipulated into policy positions. The ubiquitous attributions of everything to climate change we often see in the media illustrate this. Robert Pielke Jr. offers expert analysis of the topics here: attribution science, climate change economics and impacts, and science integrity.

     The manual was developed by NASEM. NASEM is a private, nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization operating under the congressionally chartered National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Pielke Jr. defends issue advocacy among scientists, saying that it is fundamental to a healthy democracy. However, in this case he argues that NASEM was designed to not be affected by issue advocacy. He cites NASEM’s own policy on advocacy:

 “We will NOT undertake work that is inconsistent with scientific evidence, for which an evidence base is insufficient, or that appears to be advocacy or have a foregone conclusion. We will avoid projects that would require us to make value judgments or that would be viewed as advocacy for specific policy or social outcomes, and we will avoid sponsors that may be viewed as advocates for such outcomes. Partaking in such work would serve to undermine our credibility.”

     Pielke Jr. also cites a “smoking gun” in the form of letters from former NAS president Marcia McNutt to and from a prominent funding donor. McNutt’s term ended June 30, 2026, and Shubin’s began. They had a fairly clear stated goal of attempting to impede the ability of the Trump administration to rescind the Endangerment Finding for regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Toward that end, the climate report was fast-tracked. Pielke Jr. and I also agree that rescinding the finding is not necessary. However, that is no excuse to “cook the books,” as it were. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer summarized the implications:

“Read together, this evidence suggests NAS’ intent to salt the scientific battlefield against EPA’s proposed action for purposes of both litigation challenging any EPA rescission of the Endangerment Finding and other policy efforts aimed at undoing a rescission.”

     Pielke Jr. notes that NAS is relying less on government funding and more on funding from private donors and organizations. This includes philanthropic organizations and organizations with political aims. Below, he shows that federal funding for NAS has dropped from 85.1% in 2011 to 59.8% or 69.1% in 2023, depending on whether Gulf Research funding is included. Total government funding dropped from a peak of $277.1 million in 2011 to $200.6 million in 2023, before inflation.

     This, he says, has resulted in NAS seeking more private funding, which potentially opens it up to funding by biased groups and has led to what he calls “mission creep.” He suggests that NAS is getting closer to advocacy groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists on the left and the Heartland Institute on the right. Below, he notes that the fast-tracked report may have led to the EPA’s announcement that rescinding the Endangerment Finding would not rely on scientific claims (as the climate report attempted to supply), but on statutory interpretation.

“As I have argued, justifying the rescission of the Endangerment Finding on scientific claims would have been deeply flawed — if the NASEM fast-track study did contribute in some way to the elimination of scientific claims from the rescission rule, it just may have made the arguments more likely to survive judicial review.”

     Pielke Jr. closes with some recommendations for NAS:

“The National Academy of Sciences should function as a very special organization — one of the very few that can truly serve as an honest broker. Much reform is needed, but an important and straightforward first step would be for Congress to amend the Federal Charter for the NAS to prohibit funding from non-governmental organizations and require that all studies be requested by federal agencies or Congressional committees.”

     On August 27, 25 state attorneys general penned a letter to “Cabinet Secretaries, Administrators, and Directors” at the Federal level, asking them to stop funding the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (“NASEM”). 

     Fierce fossil fuel advocate Thomas Shepstone stated that climate-litigation supporters funded, led, and provided input on the Report, which is true. Regarding attribution science, he cites the IPCC:

“[s]cientists cannot answer directly whether a particular event was caused by climate change.”

     Shepstone goes on to show that the attribution science in the chapter was definitely designed to aid litigation cases against fossil fuel companies and that the chapter’s review process lacked transparency and was not up to standards.

     Shepstone also gives the following quote:

“Organizations that abuse taxpayer money to prop up political causes for the benefit of donors should not receive federal agency grants…”    

     I can agree with that statement in general, but we need the NAS, which was established by Abraham Lincoln’s administration, and which actually needs to be funded federally to keep advocacy groups from funding it with their own agendas of policy influence. Thus, defunding NASEM is not a good idea. Pielke Jr.’s idea of prohibiting funding from NGOs and requiring reports to be requested by government agencies is a much better and more practical idea than pulling government funding.

 

 

References:

 

National Academy of Sciences president acknowledges climate guide authors' ties to plaintiffs. Paris Apodaca. Daily Caller. September 6, 2026. National Academy of Sciences president acknowledges climate guide authors' ties to plaintiffs

The National Academy of Advocacy: A growing climate scandal at the US National Academy of Sciences. Roger Pielke Jr. September 1, 2026. The National Academy of Advocacy - by Roger Pielke Jr.

Half of the State Attorneys General in America Have Called Out the National Academies As A Sham That Shouldn’t Be Funded! Thomas J Shepstone. September 10, 2026. Half of the State Attorneys General in America Have Called Out the National Academies As A Sham That Shouldn’t Be Funded!

The challenges and plans ahead for a major scientific institution. Science Magazine Podcast. Interview with Neil Shubin. September 3, 2026. The challenges and plans ahead for a major scientific institution

Principles and Practices That Guide Our Work: The following statements reaffirm the principles and practices that guide our work to support our vision, values, and mission. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine. Principles and Practices That Guide Our Work

Handheld Spectrometer Can Provide Lab-Quality Chemical Composition Analysis Via Infrared Light

     A new handheld spectrometer has been developed that can easily and quickly scan for chemical composition. It utilizes infrared light. It can produce high-resolution chemical maps of a sample without using stains or labels. As described below, the spectrometer can have medical applications:

"Ultimately, this technology could make it possible to assess tissue during cancer surgery," said research team leader Rohith Reddy of the University of Houston. "After removing a suspected tumor, a surgeon could scan the freshly excised tissue to help determine whether it is malignant or whether cancer cells remain at the surgical margin. This complementary information would be available while the patient is still in the operating room instead of having to wait for results from laboratory testing."

     Its compactness and portability lend it to many uses when fully developed.

"Although the current platform is still a research prototype, it establishes a technical foundation for field-deployable, label-free chemical imaging," said Reddy. "A handheld MIRSI device could be useful for clinical diagnosis, polymer manufacturing, pharmaceutical quality control, forensic analysis or any application where chemical composition must be measured outside a specialized laboratory."

     It is essentially a photothermal mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging system, or, in more detail, a miniaturized photothermal mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging system (MIRSI). It can distinguish proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and other components.

"Our initial goal was to determine whether a compact design could preserve the laboratory system's essential capabilities," said Reddy. "The resulting platform was even closer in size and form to a clinically deployable device than we initially expected, providing a strong foundation for future clinical translation."

     The design uses mirrors instead of lenses, which enable it to reflect mid-infrared light.

"Careful optical design and alignment helped to minimize the image distortions that mirrors can cause," said Reddy. "We also designed the handheld scanner to connect to the light source through a fiber-optic cable, allowing it to be maneuvered easily around a sample."

     Further developments of the scanner are being pursued.

“The researchers are now working to broaden the system's mid-infrared spectral bandwidth—currently 1150 to 1400 cm−1—to provide more complete molecular signatures and improve the system's ability to distinguish different biochemical constituents. They also plan to increase the imaging speed, which would help reduce motion artifacts and make true freehand operation more practical for clinicians and technicians. They note that before clinical use, the system's repeatability, safety, and diagnostic performance must also be thoroughly evaluated under realistic clinical conditions.”

     The research was published in the journal Optica.

     As a scientific and medical instrument, such a device can become very practical. It reminds me a bit of the handheld medical scanners used on Star Trek.

  

 

References:

 

Handheld scanner delivers lab-quality chemical composition maps using infrared light. Optica. edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan. Phys.org. Handheld scanner delivers lab-quality chemical composition maps using infrared light

Compact fiber-optic platform for label-free, chemically sensitive imaging. Ragib Ishrak, Xinyu Wu, Chalapathi-Charan Gajjela, Cheng Cameron Yin, and Rohith Reddy. Optica. Vol. 13, Issue 9, pp. 1934-1942 (2026). Compact fiber-optic platform for label-free, chemically sensitive imaging

New Zinc-Air Battery Design Increases Capacity and Power by 80%, According to Spanish Researchers

      Researchers at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) in Spain have redesigned the architecture for zinc-air batteries that can boost their power output by up to 80% without altering their core chemistry. The new design employs wireless bipolar electrodes, which facilitate charge transport and lower internal resistance. The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and the National University of La Plata in Argentina were also involved in the study, which was published in the journal Energy Storage Materials.

     The new study challenges the principle that the electrolyte must block the passage of electrons to avoid any risk of a short circuit. Euronews explains:

“The key lies in the electric field generated between the two electrodes when the battery is operating. The researchers have found that inserting one or more isolated conductive elements between them does not cause a short circuit and can help to improve charge transport.”

“The electric field polarises the conductive pieces, which accumulate opposite charges at their ends and create new pathways for charge transport. This reduces internal resistance and makes it possible to deliver energy more quickly. "What is remarkable is that these conductors are not wired to anything: they are simply inserted into the system and they produce beneficial effects," Casañ-Pastor explains.

     Oxygen remains a challenge in zinc-air batteries due to its slow reaction time.

“The new design incorporates wireless bipolar electrodes that reduce internal resistance and speed up energy delivery, allowing power to be increased by up to 80%.”

     The researchers think that this opens up the potential of wireless bipolar electrodes in other battery systems as well.

     The research shows that inducing polarization in wireless bipolar electrodes can lead to increased power density. According to the abstract:

“In all cases, ohmic resistance is massively lowered (up 64%), while charge transfer resistance is decreased even more. Power density increases up to 80% (volumetric) for specific configurations, while the limit current density increased > 50%.”

     The following section from the paper’s conclusions touches on the potential implications of the Zinc-air battery redesign, when further developed:

“Overall, the use of reactive Zn induced anodes, allows to improve the lifetime of the battery as well as the current density used, and the power output, offering a new design for Zn/Air batteries. Despite the drop in performance upon Zn dissolution during cycling in BipPtZnU, the results are very promising and encourage further research into mixed bipolar electrodes with greater longevity and reversibility. Alternative conducting materials, like carbons of green origin (e.g. biocarbons) could offer a significant alternative to the metals tested here, if they are able to undergo redox reactions as shown in Zn induced anode and cathode. Thus, this work serves as a starting point for designing new configurations with potential applications in commercial Zn/Air batteries.”

    

 

    

References:

 

New Spanish-made zinc-air battery design boosts capacity and power by 80%. Escarlata Sánchez. Euronews. September 10, 2026. New Spanish-made zinc-air battery design boosts capacity and power by 80%

Unlocking high power in membraneless Zn–air batteries: A paradigm shift via wireless bipolar electrochemistry. M. Mosqueda, L.N. Bengoa, S. Goñi, and N. Casañ-Pastor. Energy Storage Materials. Article: 105418. Volume 90. August 2026. Unlocking high power in membraneless Zn–air batteries: A paradigm shift via wireless bipolar electrochemistry - ScienceDirect

EPA Wants to End the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, but Oil & Gas Companies Simply Want Some Reforms and Subpart W Methane Compliance Delays: Environmentalists Want Full Compliance Now

   

       I should point out that the references used for this post are from an anti-oil & gas perspective and that I will write more from my own perspective. 

     The Trump administration announced plans last year to repeal the federal government’s greenhouse gas reporting system. The EPA is expected to discontinue the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) as well as the Biden-era methane reporting rule, known as Subpart W. The oil & gas industry, however, simply wants to delay implementation of Subpart W, while keeping the GHGRP intact. Environmental groups blasted that idea as insufficient, even though it is a rebuke of the Trump EPA’s plans.

“Multiple trade associations and companies including the American Gas Association (AGA), the American Petroleum Institute (API), the American Exploration & Production Council (AXPC), ExxonMobil, Shell, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all submitted public comments in favor of preserving the GHGRP. They called on the administration to “improve the program rather than suspend it.”

     The issue was brought to light by the National Security Archive via the Freedom of Information Act.

“Oil and gas CEOs will always support weak rules they already comply with rather than no rules at all,” Edward Maibach, a climate change communication expert at George Mason University, said by email to the National Security Archive and DeSmog. “Supporting no rules at all would prove to everyone how untrustworthy they are.”

     While the article in Esquire called the CEOs cynical, I find the above quote even more cynical. If that wasn’t cynical enough, how about this quote that demonizes fossil fuel executives as death-causing and indifferent to humanity?

“Oil and gas CEOs know their business model is the leading cause of preventable death and ill-health in the world today,” said Maibach. “Their callous indifference to humanity is shocking.”

      The article notes regarding the Biden-era rule that:

“Finalized in 2024, those regulatory changes crucially altered the ways companies were required to estimate methane pollution by incorporating sources not previously covered by the program, such as super emitter events and equipment regulating natural gas pressure and flow.”

“…emissions reported under the rule feed into a separate methane tax on companies discharging over a certain pollution threshold (although that regulation is currently delayed until 2034). This tax would affect many of the nation’s low-producing marginal, or “stripper wells,” which, recent studies show, generate around 6 percent of U.S. oil and gas output but roughly half of its methane emissions.”

     Right there above is the real reason why they want to delay implementation of the rule: it would be difficult for small operators with thin profit margins to comply with it. It is not cynicism to want to protect small companies from potentially folding, as well as decreasing U.S. oil & gas output and fast-tracking well-plugging liabilities. Those companies need time to plan for something that could severely affect their bottom line. I agree that implementation for them should be delayed.

“While most industry groups say they don’t want the program repealed, they did ask the EPA for more flexibility in estimating and measuring methane emissions.”

“If finalized, it would exempt more than two-thirds of the roughly 8,000 industrial facilities, including power plants, steel mills, and refineries, from mandatory emissions reporting.”

     Most companies want to know their carbon, methane, and total GHG footprints, and they want to address them as they are able.

     The National Security Archive stated that the rule and new methodology would cause companies to have to report previously unreported greenhouse gas emissions, making them rise by large amounts, but they also noted:

“…another consultant speaking to a gas group conference warned that updated disclosure requirements would increase reported methane emissions by roughly 16 percent. Last month, major gas producer EQT cited this revised rule as one reason its reported methane emissions rose in 2025.”

     16% is a pretty small increase by one of the largest U.S. natural gas producers. Of course, EQT has done quite a lot to decrease its GHG footprint and has led the U.S. in doing so. Smaller companies with smaller budgets cannot do so nearly as easily.  

     Below are two groups’ responses to the National Security Archive’s request for statements, one from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and one from the Independent Petroleum Producers of America (IPPA).

“API requested "that the EPA strike a balance between reducing the burdens of information collection and reporting requirements and advancing the benefits" of the GHGRP, such as its "high quality data" for stakeholders, wrote Dustin Meyer, API Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics, and Regulatory Affairs. The program's cited benefits, ranging from "showcasing company and industry progress" on emissions to supporting claims for carbon capture, hydrogen, and biofuels tax credits, outweigh its costs, Meyer adds, particularly with API's suggested changes to the methane reporting rule.”

“[IPAA’s] opposition results from the adverse effects the definition creates for small business, low production well operators and its inconsistencies with the Clean Air Act,” an IPAA representative wrote. “The complexity of the 2024 Biden Administration Subpart W calculation process will also likely force thousands of independent producers to incur significant costs to just confirm they fall below reporting thresholds.” IPAA members include many smaller companies operating stripper wells that it says current methane rules threaten to make "unviable."      

     While some companies have stressed that they prefer voluntary requirements rather than forced compliance, many are fine with the rules, especially larger companies that produce from newer wells, who are already largely in compliance.

     Below is another reason the industry wants to keep the GHGRP in place.

“The loss of standardized, robust methane reporting requirements will put U.S. companies at a disadvantage with major trading partners,” Rachel Cleetus with the Union of Concerned Scientists said by email. She added that this could force companies toward expensive, uncertain workarounds, such as third-party verifiers.”

     Another reason they want to keep the GHGRP rule is simply that it tracks their progress in meeting the requirements and reducing their emissions. That makes sense to me.

“For years, EPA has compiled and published greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions data and analysis that AGA and its members rely on to demonstrate the incredible progress our industry has made in voluntarily reducing methane emissions,” Parr wrote. “AGA encourages EPA to maintain these information repositories.”

     It makes sense to Environmental Defense Fund too:

“For over 15 years, the GHGRP has delivered credible, comparable emissions data,” said Edwin LaMair, Senior Attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, via email. “Its clear enforceable rules help ensure consistent, reliable data, even as stakeholders debate the accuracy of individual reporting methods and emissions estimates.”

     Investors also want companies to show their emissions reduction progress:

“Having the [Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program] and the [Greenhouse Gas Inventory] available as centralized, commonly accepted sources of GHG data allows AGA to proudly and unequivocally demonstrate that U.S. natural gas distribution systems have reduced methane emissions,” Parr wrote in the AGA letter. “Natural gas companies depend on this data to provide information regularly sought by investors, customers, and stakeholders.”

“API's Sommers criticized the move {to drop the rule} at the October 2025 Drake Energy Security Summit. "Regulatory certainty is a huge issues for us," he said, adding that companies prefer more stringent regulations over a decade or more of uncertainty -- and he says that reflects their advocacy on this issue. "We want to continue to report. We know how important emissions reduction is for our social license to operate."

     Some outliers, including fracking billionaire Harold Hamm's company, Continental Resources, and his trade association, the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, want to eliminate the program entirely, but they are very much a minority.

“Discontinuing the GHGRP would create blind spots in our collective understanding of air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change,” Kimberly Barrett, a member of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, said by email.

     Eliminating GHGRP and the GHG Inventory would make it harder for Europe to purchase U.S. LNG, which they need, and could lead to other countries also abandoning any moves toward better compliance.

“The rigor and transparency of the Inventory has made it possible for the U.S. to pressure trade competitors such as China, India and Brazil to disclose their emissions and ensure valid comparisons of performance across countries,..”

   

 

References:

 

Oil and gas companies are supporting government emissions reporting—just not for the reason we’d hoped. Charles P. Pierce. Esquire. August 20, 2026. Oil and gas companies are supporting government emissions reporting—just not for the reason we’d hoped

Inside the Struggle to Dismantle America’s Greenhouse Gas Data. National Security Archive. August 18, 2026. Inside the Struggle to Dismantle America’s Greenhouse Gas Data | National Security Archive

Environmental Protection Agency Presentation Slide Deck, “Greenhouse Gas Data Overview,” Office of Air and Radiation Briefing, 4 February 2024, [Classification Unknown]. National Security Archive. Environmental Protection Agency Presentation Slide Deck, “Greenhouse Gas Data Overview,” Office of Air and Radiation Briefing, 4 February 2024, [Classification Unknown] | National Security Archive

New Graphic by Visual Capitalist and Shale Crescent USA Shows That the Appalachian Region by Itself is Second Only to Russia in Natural Gas Production

     A new graphic published by Visual Capitalist illustrates that the Appalachian region’s natural gas output is second only to Russia.

     The region is sometimes referred to as the Shale Crescent, and there is an organization with the same name that advocates for bringing in manufacturing to the region to take advantage of the low feedstock price for natural gas and its derivatives. Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and West Virginia make up the Shale Crescent.

“Its scale creates advantages beyond energy production. Businesses located near abundant natural gas can benefit from reliable supply, reduced transportation costs, and access to a critical industrial feedstock.”

“The data demonstrates that Shale Crescent USA is not simply a leading U.S. region—it is a globally significant energy producer.”

“Consequently, manufacturers evaluating new locations may find the region’s combination of scale, reliability, security, and resource availability particularly compelling for their long-term goals.”

References:

 

Ranked: U.S. Natural Gas vs. Countries. Ryan Bellefontaine. Design - Akhila Ayyalasomayajula, Athul Alexander, and Abha Patil. Visual Capitalist. September 15, 2026. Ranked: U.S. Natural Gas vs. Countries

Shale Crescent USA. Website. A World Class Manufacturing Advantage – Shale Crescent

SLB Buys Kelvion, Betting That Leveraging Its Heat Exchange Experience in Offshore Platform Environments Can Apply to Liquid Cooling for Data Centers: The Outlook for the Liquid Cooling Market

     Data center chips generate large amounts of waste heat that must be managed with cooling. Air cooling is inadequate and thermodynamically impossible to scale. Water conducts heat far better (25-30 times better) than air and has a vastly higher (by 3,400 times) volumetric heat capacity. Thus, liquid cooling is required for the NVIDIA Blackwell GPU chips that draw power to process data center computing. NVIDIA's next-generation Rubin platform is projected to push rack densities beyond what they are now.

     Ryan Cook of Tech Times gives a detailed analysis and explains the recent purchase by oilfield services giant SLB of German heat exchanger manufacturer Kevlion:

“SLB (NYSE: SLB), the century-old oilfield services company, bet $4.1 billion this morning on the argument that the people who know how to solve extreme heat problems are not software engineers or chip architects — they are the industrial engineers who have spent a century managing thermal extremes on offshore platforms, in arctic drilling sites, and in desert refinery fields. In a definitive agreement announced Monday, SLB agreed to acquire Kelvion — a German manufacturer of heat exchangers and cooling systems for data centers and industrial processes — from Apollo-managed funds for approximately $3.4 billion in cash, plus the assumption of roughly $0.7 billion in existing debt, per the SLB Kelvion acquisition terms. The deal, valued at approximately 11 times Kelvion's estimated 2026 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, is expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals.”

     Below, he touches on direct-to-chip cooling, which I posted about here, and heat exchangers and air-fin coolers that dump waste heat into the atmosphere, although, as I posted about here, in the future could be recovered and utilized at lower temperatures than previously.

“The cooling architecture that replaces air involves several layers. At the chip level, direct-to-chip cold plates — metal plates bonded directly to the GPU die — circulate water or a water-glycol mixture through the processor, achieving chip-level thermal capture efficiency of 80 to 95 percent at the source. A Coolant Distribution Unit manages flow, temperature, pressure, and heat exchange within the rack. The CDU connects to a facility-level loop that routes warm coolant to large outdoor heat rejection systems — the heat exchangers and air-fin coolers that ultimately dump waste heat into the atmosphere.”

     Kevlion makes GigaBay air-fin coolers, large modular heat rejection units with fans up to 22 feet (6.7 meters) in diameter. The company was recently contracted for deployments at 200 MW and 350MW U.S. data centers, respectively.  

"Data centers are becoming more sophisticated and energy-intensive, and customers are increasingly looking for partners that can optimize how critical systems work together across the facility and help bring new capacity online faster," said Gavin Rennick, president of SLB's New Energy and Industrial business, in a statement. "Thermal management is central to that challenge."

     SLB began manufacturing modular data center components at its plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 2023, the largest dedicated data center manufacturing facility in North America. With the addition of Kevlion’s heat exchanger technology, SLB is now capable of full thermal management at data centers.  

"This is not an oil and gas business," SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch said in an October 2025 interview, elaborating on his oilfield-to-AI pivot strategy. "It's driven by hyperscalers, partners that reach out to us to help them respond to the AI boom and data center growth that I think will last beyond this decade."

“In March 2026, SLB formalized its position in the hyperscaler supply chain by becoming the SLB NVIDIA DSX design partner for NVIDIA's DSX AI factories — a designation that puts SLB inside the NVIDIA reference architecture that hyperscalers use when deploying dense AI clusters. Kelvion adds the one major capability that stack has lacked: full thermal management integration from chip-level coolant loops to facility-level heat rejection.”

"This transaction accelerates our ambition to become an industrial technology partner to the data center industry," Le Peuch said in Monday's SLB Kelvion acquisition announcement, "and help customers address the growing infrastructure complexity required to scale AI."

     Cook writes that SLB’s projected data center revenue “would rank it among the largest dedicated data center infrastructure businesses in the world.” He also notes that data center liquid cooling deals have resulted in significant consolidation in the industry, as noted below.

“The consolidation pattern reflects a shared thesis: that the transition from air cooling to liquid cooling at scale is a multi-year structural shift with winner-take-most economics at the integration layer. A hyperscaler that can procure modular enclosures, power distribution, liquid cooling loops, and facility-level heat rejection from a single engineering-accountable vendor faces far less integration risk than one assembling the same stack from five separate suppliers.”

“SLB's acquisition of Kelvion completes a stack that includes modular manufacturing, offsite construction, engineering, and digital capabilities — with thermal management now integrated directly from the ground up, rather than bolted on by a separate vendor.”

     He also cites Goldman Sachs projections that liquid-cooled AI servers will represent 76% of deployments by the end of 2026, up from just 15% in 2024. The liquid cooling market is expected to grow by nearly seven times, from $4 billion in 2026 to $27 billion by 2033, a compound annual growth rate of more than 31%.

     Kevlion also makes heat pumps and components for renewables infrastructure, carbon capture, and broader industrial processing, all markets where thermal management is gaining strategic importance.

     There are, however, some significant engineering challenges remaining for liquid cooling, including coolant chemistry management and biofilm/biofouling, which causes system corrosion, and preventing and mitigating pump failures.

“Coolant chemistry management remains a documented operational risk. Glycol concentration below roughly 25 percent propylene glycol carries liquid cooling glycol biofilm risk of bacterial biofilm that does not reliably inhibit fouling — biological contamination that insulates heat transfer surfaces, generates particulates, and drives corrosion in CDU loops. Pump failures in liquid-cooled systems cause far more immediate GPU damage than air cooling failures, because GPUs have no thermal buffer when coolant stops flowing — damage can begin within seconds.”

     Another challenge is that due to tariff pressures, some of Kevlion’s manufacturing capabilities in France and China will likely have to be duplicated in SLB’s U.S.-based facilities.

     Finally, Cook notes that integration of heat management with modular component and power system manufacture gives consolidated companies full-stack data center approaches that synergize.

“For enterprise technology buyers and data center operators, the SLB-Kelvion deal signals that the market for integrated AI infrastructure — combining modular construction, power systems, and full-stack thermal management — is consolidating rapidly around a small number of industrial-scale vendors. The window for assembling best-of-breed cooling stacks from independent specialists is narrowing as those specialists are acquired.”

     Below is a data center liquid cooling market outlook from Enki AI:

 

References:

 

SLB acquires Kelvion for $4.1B: Air cooling fails AI math, oilfield engineers win. Ryan Cook. Tech Times. August 31, 2026. SLB acquires Kelvion for $4.1B: Air cooling fails AI math, oilfield engineers win

Data Center Liquid Cooling Deals, Top 10: $9.5 B Eaton Acquisition, $40 B Aligned Buyout (2024 to 2026). Enki AI. Eaton Liquid Cooling 2025, $9.5B Boyd Acquisition - ENKI

 

Incomplete Combustion from End-Use Appliances Responsible for the Majority of NYC’s Methane Emissions, Much Higher Than Distribution System Leaks, According to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

     A new study published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics by researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Columbia Climate School, measured and analyzed atmospheric methane concentrations and emissions sources around New York City. They found that incomplete combustion in appliances like furnaces and natural gas heat pumps,

     According to Phys.org:

“The researchers estimate that methane emissions associated with natural gas were approximately 1.7% of all gas delivered through the system. These emissions represent a substantial amount of fuel NYC consumers are paying for but not fully using, equivalent to nearly $300 million of natural gas, based on 2023 and 2024 retail prices.”

     The researchers were able to distinguish between non-combustion emissions, either from leaks in underground utility pipes or from building appliances, and inefficiently burned gas from heating and cooling systems. The two-year study covering 2023 and 2024 involved hourly methane measurements from the Mineola Tower, a National Institute of Standards and Technology monitoring site on Long Island. They sampled air flowing out of Manhattan and western Long Island during westerly winds. They set out to capture seasonal patterns. Along with methane, they sampled ethane and carbon monoxide at similarly frequent rates.

     According to Phys.org:

“The measurements revealed a distinct seasonal cycle: Methane emissions peaked during the winter heating season, declined through spring and rose again during the summer cooling season before increasing further during the following heating season. Natural gas accounted for 99% of total methane emissions in February and 98% in May, and 85% to 88% during the summer cooling months.”

     Biogenic sources from wetlands, wastewater treatment plants, and landfills were not present in high concentrations in this region. The summer peaks were not expected, and some may be attributable to natural gas cooling systems. Ethane emissions are a signature of thermogenic subsurface natural gas sources. Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced during the incomplete combustion of any carbon-based fuel and is a signature of it in the data. Ratios and other correlations between the three gases can distinguish natural gas pre-meter leaks, post-combustion emissions, and microbial activities. 

     Incomplete combustion was found to be the main methane source in the heating and cooling seasons.

“Only 6% of the identified natural gas plumes in winter and 7% in summer showed no combustion signature, indicating that pipeline leaks were detected less frequently at the tower than methane associated with incomplete combustion.”

     Methane increases closely followed methane deliveries in the heating and cooling seasons, and lack of them in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall when demand is low, matching combustion source availability. The methane increases from end-use appliances show why methane inventory estimates were lower than these and other field measurements for the NYC area.  

“Despite efforts to fix pipeline leaks, methane emissions in cities have remained higher than expected, suggesting that important sources were being overlooked. The authors say inefficient use of natural gas, including incomplete combustion, accounts for much of the missing methane and should be incorporated into future calculations.”

     Higher combustion rates on end-use appliances should also be sought. Post-meter combustion is now known as a dominant rather than a negligible source of urban methane. This was unexpected and has implications. Comparisons with other cities are given in a section of the conclusion below. Note that some cities spent a lot of money digging up and replacing very old, often cast-iron, distribution lines only to find barely any change in urban methane levels.

“Source attribution analysis reveals that the incomplete combustion of natural gas (post-meter emissions from the inefficient burning of natural gas in any appliance or power unit) dominates methane emissions in the city, regardless of season. There is no natural gas methane loss rate currently included in national or global inventories (Crippa et al., 2024; Maasakkers et al., 2023), but the local NYCMA inventory (Pitt et al., 2024) has included a beyond-the-meter loss rate of 0.5 % (Fischer et al., 2018). However, we calculated a consumption-driven loss rate for the NYCMA that is a factor of three times greater than these previous studies of appliance emissions. These largely overlooked combustion-related post-meter methane emissions can help explain the persistent missing thermogenic methane sources reported by previous studies.”

“The observed loss rate of 1.7 ± 0.6 % is within the range observed for other cities. It is less than the 2.5 ± 0.5 % (Sargent et al., 2021) and 2.7 ± 0.6 % (McKain et al., 2015) reported for the Boston area, but greater than the lower limit of the 1.3 %–2.3 % reported for Los Angeles (He et al., 2019; Sargent et al., 2021) and the 1.3 % reported for the Baltimore/DC area (Huang et al., 2019).”

“Many cities, including Boston, have dedicated millions of dollars to upgrading street-level natural gas infrastructure, without seeing any substantial change in methane emissions (Sargent et al., 2021). At the monthly retail prices of natural gas for 2023 and 2024, a 1.7 % loss rate is close to 300×106 USD yr−1 of natural gas purchased, but unused, by consumers in NYCMA.”

“Our results highlight the three-dimensional nature of urban methane emissions: the largest methane emissions are observed from rooftops and not from the pipelines beneath the streets below. Our findings emphasize the urgent need to incorporate emissions from post-meter natural gas combustion into methane inventories and emphasize emissions reductions from natural gas end-use sectors as a means to reduce urban methane emissions.”

  

 

References:

 

Unused natural gas behind NYC's $300 million waste of a potent greenhouse gas. Rebecca Fowler. Phys.org. September 14, 2026. Unused natural gas behind NYC's $300 million waste of a potent greenhouse gas

Inefficient consumption of natural gas drives methane emissions from a megacity. Yuwei Zhao, Andrew Hallward-Driemeier, Luke D. Schiferl, Trey Maddaleno, Michael P. Vermeuel, Dylan B. Millet, Delphine Farmer, and Róisín Commane. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Volume 26, issue 17. ACP, 26, 12911–12924, 2026. ACP - Inefficient consumption of natural gas drives methane emissions from a megacity