The best highlight is that equity market is closed. Now MLPs are forced to generate cash and fund projects.
In closing, a fact I noticed for the first time this trip is that casinos don't sell chewing gum in their stores. The reason is that past casino guests made a mess with the gum back in the day, leaving it all over carpets and under tables and everywhere. Basically, because people can't behave themselves, gum is no longer sold in casinos.
Equity capital markets at one time were extremely active and remained pretty active in the initial stages of the MLP selloff in 2015 (remember PAA's $1bn one and done offering?) and even into early 2017 (NS raised $579mm in an equity deal at $46.32/unit). But, like gum in casinos, the market doesn't like to issue common equity to MLPs anymore, because the equity issued usually ends up under the table or stuck to the floor.