Welcome
to
CUT UNNECESSARY REGULATORY BURDEN, Inc.
RECOVER OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS FROM CORPORATE CONTROL
C.U.R.B.'s Badge logo deserves some explanation. First and most obvious is the five pointed star, which is the customary symbol of authority for law enforcement personnel such as a sheriff or marshal. C.U.R.B. labeled each point of this star with different authorities – legislator, sheriff, judge, jury and appeals. In the USA, these powers are always distributed among the three separate but equal branches of government to ensure due process. However in the domain of FERC, it has assigned a corporate-monopoly (AEP) all of these roles for administration of the SMP.
Why the kangaroo with the baby in its pouch? This symbolizes the Kangaroo-Justice system of regulation and enforcement currently in-place between the FERC and AEP.
Who is in Who’s pocket? Consider this fact … AEP pays FERC an annual license fee of $950,000 for the Smith Mountain Project, which ultimately funds FERC staff salaries. This is a palpable conflict of interest – the regulator is predisposed to act in the best interest of its licensee, rather than in the interest of private property owners or in the best interest of the project.
All Property Owners Should be Concerned
Over $1.0 Billion in Private Investment is at Risk
There are thousands of structures and improvements (unidentified to FERC) built without an APCO permit, below the 800-foot contour, known as 'encroachments.' These encroachments include: marina work buildings, marina boat slip rentals, restaurants, golf course greens and holes, the 36-unit Vista Pointe Resort, swimming pools, decks, homes and parts of homes, the causeway to Contentment Island, well-over 1.5 million linear feet of riprap, seawalls, bulkheads, beaches, access paths/roads, private boat ramps and some 6,400 residential docks. APCO believes the flowage easement is nearly the equivalent of fee ownership and APCO can remove anything. If this were true, (which it is not according to the Va. Supreme Court) then every property owner has just had his property below the 800-foot contour seized, without being compensated. Rulings in Pressl and Nissen places over $1B of improvements at the risk of changing FERC requirements and APCO’s discretion. Consider the losses if APCO removed Vista Point Condo's ($10,8M+), all riprap ($150M+), 6,400 residential docks ($480M+), these alone would amount to over $640,000,000. The loss of residential and commercial property values would be enormous, and all future investment and economic growth would end.
Taking property without paying is theft. Claiming one has federal regulatory authority, when it has none, is a lie. Coercing a landowner to sign a permit claiming federal regulatory authority, when untrue, is extortion.
THE GREAT CON -- For over 15 years, Appalachian Power Company and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, claiming federal law, methodically scammed the Smith Mountain Lake community to sign-away property rights for permission to build a dock. In December 2016, this fraud was exposed by six federal appellate justices who declared that since FERC only regulates APCO, a landowner cannot violate federal law by constructing a dock. The final battle to recover our property, invalidate fraudulently obtained APCO Permits and replace the Shoreline Management Plan with lawful regulation is underway in Franklin County Circuit Court. Every property owner, should rally to defend their constitutionally guaranteed right to own and enjoy property. It’s simply illegal to take property without paying.
Conscience is our human fail-safe, preventing corrupt ideas from becoming corrupt actions. People without conscience never consider the consequences of their corrupt acts upon others. Corporations, however, are not human and consequently often commit corrupt acts, without remorse, and scapegoat employees for failure to follow vague ethics rules or law, to avoid accountability. Think of wall street bankers, mortgage brokers, or a FERC regulated power company.
The Core of CURB's Mission is to Educate and Inform ...