The Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, was a federal utility company created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. One of the TVA's chief accomplishments was building a series of hydroelectric dams that brought access to cheap electric power to a large section of the American South. The creation of the TVA was controversial, with many opponents arguing that the government should not control hydroelectric systems, while the Roosevelt administration believed that private utility firms were unfair to the consumer.
