01 Jan 2005 The National Center for Public Policy Research Announces Two Staff Additions to Boost Free Market Environmental and Regulatory Affairs Work

The National Center for Public Policy Research is pleased to announce a major expansion of its environmental and regulatory affairs staff with the recent addition of J. Peyton Knight and Robert J. “R.J.” Smith.

J. Peyton Knight will serve as director of The National Center’s John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs.  He will focus on issues including property rights protections, National Heritage Areas and endangered species.  Most recently the executive director of the American Policy Center, Knight previously worked for the Center for Consumer Freedom.  Knight holds a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.

Robert J. “R.J.” Smith, a 30-year veteran of environmental politics and a leading advocate of free market environmental policy, has joined The National Center as a senior fellow in environmental policy.  He is an expert on wildlife, property rights, endangered species and property stewardship.  Smith is also an adjunct scholar of environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and he is director of the Center for Private Conservation.

Smith formerly served as a consultant to the Department of Interior and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.  He is a graduate of Stanford University and studied under renowned Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises at New York University.

“We are pleased to have Peyton Knight and R.J. Smith joining our team,” said Amy Ridenour, President of the National Center for Public Policy Research.  “Peyton Knight and R.J. Smith will boost the National Center’s environmental research and communication operations.  They will help The National Center correct false information being spread about science as it relates to environmental policy.  They also will help open the eyes of those who believe, contrary to much evidence, that the only way to solve environmental problems is to throw huge amounts of money and layers of complicated and often counterproductive regulations at them.”

For more information, contact Ryan Balis at (202) 507-6398 or [email protected].  The National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-profit 501(c)(3) communications and research foundation dedicated to providing free market solutions to public policy problems.