About Us

Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are currently an integral way our nation’s private sector finances the infrastructure needed to fully utilize newly discovered domestic energy resources – leading to greater energy independence for the United States – and to ensure that a wide variety of energy products make their way efficiently and safely from the production fields to American homes, businesses and communities.

 

MLPs are limited partnerships or limited liability companies (LLCs) choosing partnership taxation traded on public exchanges. A share in an MLP is called a “unit,” and MLP shareholders are known as “unitholders.” MLPs can be found on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market, as well as many regional exchanges. They combine the affordability and liquidity of corporate stocks and bonds with the advantages of investing in a partnership. MLPs generally pay investors regular cash distributions, and many offer growth potential.

There are over 100 MLPs on the market – the majority of which are in industries related to natural resources and the construction of energy infrastructure. For more information on MLPs, visit our MLP 101 page.

Accomplishments

Responsible for the continued existence of publicly traded partnerships. In 1987, when Congressional tax writers were set to tax all MLPs as corporations, the then Coalition of Publicly Traded Partnerships won a compromise ...

Obtained favorable clarification of the 1987 provisions in the 1988 technical corrections bill.

Worked with congressional staff to obtain a number of changes in the language of “carried interest” legislation in the 110th - 112th Congresses to ensure that traditional MLPs were not harmed by efforts to change taxation of investment ...

Persuaded Congress in 2008 to expand the qualifying income definition to include transportation and storage of ethanol, biodiesel, and other alternative fuels.

Achieved enactment in 2004 of a provision to make MLPs a qualifying income source for mutual funds under the regulated investment company rules of the tax code.

Obtained repeal in 1993 of a discriminatory provision treating all MLP income allocated to a tax-exempt organization, regardless of its nature, as unrelated business taxable income ...

Successfully influenced 1993 congressional legislation to regulate partnership roll-up transactions to exclude transactions involving only MLPs and to make the rules for covered transactions practicable.

Before the 1987 legislation, blocked efforts to include the taxation of MLPs as corporations in the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and played an instrumental role in removing taxation of partnerships ...

Modified partnership provisions in the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 that would have adversely affected MLP operations.

Board of Directors

MLPA Officers and Committee Chairs

Officers

Chairman of the Board & Executive Committee Chair
Randy Fowler
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
Secretary
Frank Murphy
Robert W. Baird & Co.
Treasurer
Matthew C. Liuzzi
USA Compression Partners, LP

Committee Chairs

Executive Committee
Randy Fowler
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
Federal Affairs Committee
Bruce Heine
Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.
Regulatory Committee
Rob Baldwin
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
State Affairs Committee
Delbert Fore
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
Public/Investor Relations Committee
Randy Burkhalter
Enterprise Products Partners L.P.

Master Limited Partnership Association (MLPA)
300 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 747-6570

Lori Ziebart, Executive Director

[email protected]