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Kinder Morgan Energy Partners - Dividend Analysis

KMP is a master limited partnership, not a corporation. It pays distributions to its unit holders, not dividends to stockholders. That distinction is important, because of the significant differences in business model and tax treatment.

Otherwise, the article is a nice recital of easily available financial information, but it does not touch on the nature of the pipeline business or KMP's future. With the recent completion of the Rockies Express pipeline and other major capital projects, distributions should increase more rapidly than in recent years.

And there is a nice irony for people who remember Enron--Rich Kinder founded his dynasty of pipeline MLPs after being passed over for the CEO job at Enron in favor of Jeff Skilling. Kinder then bought Enron's pipelines from then and went on to succeed where they could not.