The Foundation for American Innovation is pleased to announce that Emmet Penney will serve as Director of FAI's Energy & Infrastructure program. Thomas Hochman, who previously led the program, will transition to non-resident senior fellow. Emmet will also serve as a senior advisor to FAI Action, FAI’s sister 501(c)(4).
Emmet joined FAI as a Senior Fellow in early 2025 and has anchored the program's policy and research agenda since. Former editor-in-chief of Grid Brief, and a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow for his reporting on the power grid, he has become one of the country's sharpest voices on nuclear energy and American industrial power.
His work at FAI spans nuclear regulatory reform, the case for a fleet-scale American nuclear buildout, and efforts to clear the permitting and grid barriers slowing new energy and infrastructure. Through Nuclear Barbarians, his Substack and podcast, and his writing in Compact, American Affairs, The Claremont Review of Books, and The Free Press, Emmet has helped move energy dominance and industrial policy toward the center of the national debate.
