This should be a triumphant moment for Energy Transfer Equity (NYSE: ETE) proprietor Kelcy Warren.

All his foes, from environmentalist protesters to stood-up merger prospects, have been legally bulldozed.

The candidate he strongly supported has been elected president with a stated commitment to letting the energy industry do as it likes.

In a somewhat related development, several crucial new pipelines have recently come  on line, while others received long-awaited permits.

Most importantly, crude is expected to flow this week through the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, after an appeals court turned away a request for an emergency injunction from two Native American tribes.

Last month the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Rover pipeline, which when completed (in two stages scheduled for July and November) will ship Marcellus and Utica natural gas into the Upper Midwest.

Sometime this fall Energy Transfer also expects to complete the Revolution pipeline and related assets, funneling more gas into Rover and natural gas liquids to its fractionation and export complex in eastern Pennsylvania.

One gas export pipeline into Mexico came on in January and another is due to be completed within days. And this is all apart from a separate aggressive near-term project slate at the Sunoco Logistics (NYSE: SXL), which is expected to complete its merger with Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP) by mid-April.

The merger of ETE’s two affiliated MLPs will allow the combined entity to cut annual distributions to unitholders by a little over $600 million.

On the plus side the ETP unitholders taking that hit will at least participate in the merged entity’s promised distribution growth in the “low double digits,” and the payout should be fully covered by distributable cash flow, in contrast with a coverage ratio of 0.87x at ETP for the recently completed fiscal year.

But all this positive news on pending projects and the money-saving merger must be weighed against a major negative. And that is simply the fact that MLP investors appear to have grown somewhat weary – and wary – of Warren’s addiction to expansion.

We know this because after slumping in the neighborhood of 10% in the two days following the merger announcement, the equity of ETP and SXL has continued to underperform the MLP sector. Here’s the chart, with ETE (blue) and the Alerian MLP Index on top while ETP (red) and SXL are no higher now than they were after the first trading day following the merger news.

The day after the merger I wrote this, which still rings true:

In many ways, the SXL unitholders get a worse deal, their fee-based pipeline and terminal revenue diluted with ETP’s large and significantly riskier gas  gathering exposure…

In truth both declines were probably unwarranted since ETP’s inadequate coverage was hardly a secret and SXL’s pipelines depend on a large gathering footprint, regardless of how the corporate asset shells are shuffled.

Such intramural gymnastics are almost always a zero-sum game, so it seems doubtful that both ETP and SXL deserve to be discounted for getting together.

So why do they still remain discounted, to the tune of 12% against the Alerian and 18% relative to ETE since the merger announcement? Some of it might be the temporary effect of investors in ETP and SXL concentrating on the other MLP’s weaknesses rather than strengths. But it could also reflect the loss of confidence in Warren’s leadership in the wake of the abortive Williams merger and the attendant soap opera, including the abrupt firing of Warren’s finance chief.

The month after that shock sent the unit price to $4, Warren opted to defer a portion of the distributions on his units in exchange for additional equity that will be issued to him at extremely favorable price. The stated rationale was to help reduce leverage following the merger with Williams; Warren said he would have offered the deal to the public had Williams not vetoed a public offering. But when ETE was able to get out of its merger commitment and its founder was asked whether he’d forego the advantageous private placement the answer was a curt “No.”

I do think there’s a “Kelcy discount” of some sort on the ETP and SXL units (and for that matter on ETE as well).

Perhaps the most comparable MLP to ETP and SXL is Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ), which trades at a forward annualized yield of 6.1% following a distribution cut of its own. It’s been helped by the elimination of its incentive distribution rights, of course. The distribution coverage is better too, but on another hand WPZ is only aiming for a growth rate of 5-7%.

Another competitor that has eliminated its incentive distribution rights, Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP), is at 6.4% despite not promising an increase this year. Archrival Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) yields 6%. Meanwhile, SXL, which will be the surviving merger entity even as it changes its name to ETP, is at 8.7%.

That means the cost of capital for all these competitors will be significantly lower than that of the post-merger ETP, giving them a leg up in the bidding war for midstream infrastructure projects in the crowded and red-hot Permian Basin, for example.

Unless the market relents the spread will only grow given ETP’s plans for relatively rapid distribution growth. If the merged ETP hikes its payout 10% annually and the unit price stays flat, today’s 8.7% yield would turn into 10.5% in two years.

I still expect the yield to drop as a result of capital appreciation over the longer haul. The MLP family’s combined asset base is too attractive to remain permanently discounted just because Warren isn’t the nicest guy, or because his last big deal didn’t work out.

That’s why Growth pick SXL remains rated a Buy below $28, and of course ETE remains my top pick with a buy limit of $22.

But neither seems likely to break out of its current trading range until Warren makes his next acquisition. He said on the last conference call he’s “back analyzing” the possibilities, and noted that he’d be willing to use ETE equity to do a deal before selling the asset to ETP at a suitable time. The time won’t be suitable, though, until investors in his affiliates trust Warren enough to settle for a significantly lower yield. And that might require not just a good next deal but also significantly higher energy prices.

Right now the Energy Transfer brand isn’t the money magnet it once was. That’s hardly fatal, but understand that Kelcy Warren needs affordable equity capital a lot more than he needs Donald Trump.