Want Decades of Passive Income? 2 Energy Stocks to Buy Right Now

When a company's dividend yield seems too good to be true, that's often because it is. Particularly high yields can be difficult to sustain, and moreover, they can often be the result of a sinking stock price due to a troubled underlying business.

That's why it's important for income-focused investors not only to look at a company's dividend payout consistency but also its financial health.

Energy companies Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) and Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) both offer payouts that can provide meaningful -- and sustainable -- passive income.

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Company No. 1: Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners treats, processes, and transports natural gas, crude oil, and other refined products. Over the decades, it has built an extensive network of integrated assets, with over 50,000 miles of pipelines, 45 natural gas processing trains, 27 fractionators, and 21 deepwater docks.

Enterprise shared in its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings press release that it sees opportunities to help meet the nation's growing demand for electrical power, driven in part by the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure buildout.

"We are also seeing opportunities to use operational leverage and modest investments in our natural gas pipeline systems in Texas and Louisiana to serve growing demand to support the development of AI/data centers, industrial reshoring and a general increase in electrification," co-CEO A.J. Teague said.

Those opportunities will be good for future revenue growth, adding more upside to the consistency that Enterprise Products Partners has already offered its shareholders over the last several years.

In both 2022 and 2023, net income attributable to common stockholders totaled $5.4 billion. It climbed to $5.8 billion in 2024 and was $5.7 billion in 2025.

Regarding dividends, Enterprise Products Partners has hiked its payouts for 27 consecutive years. At the current share price, it offers an appealing yield of 5.8%.

Company No. 2: Enbridge

With a portfolio of natural gas transmission systems, renewable energy, liquid pipelines, and gas utilities, Enbridge (NYSE: ENB) is an "all of the above" energy industry player.

Included in those diversified revenue sources are vast operations across North America. For example, Enbridge is the largest natural gas distributor in both Canada and Utah.

It's also building a solar facility in Texas, and Meta Platforms has signed a contract to buy all the electricity that site produces.

Those diversified sources are helping bring in more profits. In 2025, it booked 7.1 billion Canadian dollars in GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings, up from CA$5.1 billion in 2024.

With all that cash coming in, there's plenty to pass on to shareholders as dividends, which are a core priority for the company. Enbridge has not only paid dividends for the last 70 years, it has raised its payouts annually for 31 straight years.

For both companies, shareholders will still want to pay attention to cash flow, and to management's comments about the dividend each quarter, as unexpected expenses may alter the trajectory of those payouts.

With that small caveat in mind, both Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners can offer shareholders decades of reliable passive income backed by strong financials.

Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Enbridge and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.