Energy policy is now a taken-for-granted site of state intervention, however this was not always the case. I take up the question of how and why modern states gained influence over energy production, distribution, and consumption by examining the emergence of electricity as an object of American state strategy between 1902-1945. At the turn of the twentieth century, the American state played almost no role in the electric power system. By 1945, the federal government was one of the largest electricity producers in the country and had the power to shape other countries’ energy systems. Through an historical sociological study, I analyze the American state’s efforts to increase the supply and consumption of electricity across various geographies and their culmination in the national electric grid. By tracking the development and contestation of the American “electric state”, I seek to understand the energy system as a crucial site of political power.