On January 11, 2017, John M. Fox, the co-founder of MarkWest Hydrocarbon, released an open letter to the board of directors of Marathon Petroleum Corporation outlining how the accelerated dropdown of refining assets hurts long-term value of the Company and vastly diminishes growth prospects at MPLX that results in increased cost of capital. John M. Fox stated that the Company needs to execute the IDR elimination plan immediately at a fair and transparent price without burdening the Company to $1.4 billion in annual payments to MPLX from dropdown assets that don't fit the growth profile and are strategic to the Company's refining business. In addition, John M. Fox stated that he propose by spinning out the Company's current ownership of 87 million MPLX units, plus the MPLX units received from the IDR elimination to its shareholders would yield an estimated immediate uplift in value for shareholders of the Company ranging between $20-$30 per share.