Friday Morning Links

• Global oil consumption has rebounded to all-time highs and increasing natural gas demand is being driven by LNG growth, coal to gas switching and the rapid increase in electric power demand stemming from new datacenter developments. Enbridge's incumbent footprint across its four core businesses puts the Company in an unparalleled position to meet increasing conventional and new energy demand in North America and beyond. As the world navigates a dynamically shifting macro backdrop, Enbridge will continue to play a leading role delivering safe, reliable and affordable energy. Our 2025 guidance, once again, reflects the predictability embedded across our businesses. We expect to generate EBITDA between $19.4 and $20.0 billion. This represents a 9% increase from the midpoint of our 2024 recast guidance and is 17% higher than our original 2024 guidance, driven by a full year of contributions from our U.S. gas utilities acquisitions, the roughly $5 billion of secured projects we're on track to place into service in 2024 and continued strong expected utilization of our assets. [Enbridge Inc.]
• US oil supermajor Chevron will cut capital spending next year for the first time since the pandemic oil crash, dialling back its shale expansion plans just as Donald Trump enters office with a pledge to “drill, baby, drill”. America’s second-biggest oil producer on Thursday announced a capex budget of $14.5bn-$15.5bn for 2025, down from $15.5bn-$16.5bn this year. It is the first time Chevron has lowered spending since 2021, when producers were reeling from a pandemic-induced collapse in energy demand, and comes as oil prices retreat on fears of oversupply in the global market. The Opec cartel announced on Thursday it would continue to hold back supplies, in another sign of producer concern about the oil market’s health. [FT]
  
• The US runs 6% deficits (let’s see what Musk and Trump are going to do about it, fixing this could happening, but I think we must wait for results), which means in the midterm inflation is coming back (and even now it is here!). This (financial repression) is a bit worse now (not as bad as in the 1940s), but this (financial repression) is always the case: if you are not invested in hard assets, inflation is going to (at least) pressure you. So, working hard is not going to cut it. The combination that cuts it is: work hard + think 1h about money once a week! Have a look at upper class families (mostly aristocrats, their investing is grained in their culture) that are around over 1000 years (yes, such families exist). What do they own? Fertile Land (hard asset), Gold (hard asset), Quality Stocks (hard asset), Quality Real Estate (hard asset). They do not invest in anything close to paper money (Bonds, money market funds) strategically. And they do not care about volatility because it does not matter if you own 2 billion, then 1 billion and then 3 billion 20 years later. Volatility is the problem of the middle class: this is the nut we need to crack. [Andreas Himmelreich] 
  
• Once reserved for granola-loving hippies, the term has been embraced by a range of women who are pursuing a more natural way of life. That could mean avoiding chemical cleaning products, cutting down on single-use plastics and opting for organic and unprocessed foods. For some, the lifestyle extends to health and medical decisions, such as protesting water fluoridation and choosing not to vaccinate their children. Many of these women, who cut across partisan lines, say they’ve found a champion in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the medical skeptic who is poised to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. [WSJ]
• For the second time in about two years, Wisconsin utilities are extending the life of one of the state’s largest coal-fired power plants and possibly converting it to run on natural gas, saying the change is necessary to ensure grid reliability. Plant co-owners Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric and Wisconsin Public Service said in a statement that the 1,100-megawatt Columbia Energy Center would continue to operate through the end of the decade to allow for the evaluation of converting one of the plant’s two units to natural gas. The companies said the extension doesn’t affect their goals to achieve carbon emissions goals and existing commitments to eliminate coal as a fuel source. The plant in south-central Wisconsin was initially slated for closure this year. [E&E News]
•  The Trump administration will be in charge of the United States Quarter Millennial celebrations in 2026. Herman Kahn was excited about America's bicentennial, and he wrote his best book in 1976 with his predictions for the next two centuries. Kahn thought these occasions were a big deal, an opportunity to set a tone and mood for the country, which he obviously thought should be Determinate Optimism to use Thiel's term. Sadly, he could not get dopey Gerald Ford interested in the bicentennial. Kahn would be excited about a presidential administration where the SpaceX founder has a front row seat. [CBS]