Probably incorrect, gotta remember that MLP's have alot of depreciation which affects "earnings" in the GAAP sense but it does not affect the cash flow. Alot of "investors" often make brash and foolish statements when they see that "earnings" are much lower than the distribution, which they commonly call a dividend(MLP's have units rather than shares and distributions rather than dividends). This is usually followed by some sort of "this is going to crash" or they are insolvent or some other foolishness. Hope that helps.