November 28, 2007


Ms. Linda Hunter
The Presido, PO Box 29386
San Francisco, California  94129-0386

Dear Ms. Hunter:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concern about the oil spill in 
San Francisco Bay.  I appreciate hearing from you, and I agree with you.

The San Francisco Bay is one of our region's most precious resources.  It is 
a point of pride for our city and essential to the vitality of the Bay Area.  I 
have worked for many years as San Francisco's representative in Congress 
to preserve the Bay's pristine ecosystem, protect its native wildlife, and 
promote its recreational and commercial potential.  Unfortunately, as a result 
of last month's oil spill, the health and beauty of the Bay has been 
compromised, beaches closed and business slowed.   

While there are many questions left to be answered about the nature of the 
accident and the response to it, our priority at this time must be cleaning the 
spill thoroughly and rapidly.  Federal resources have been provided by the 
Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund in order to facilitate remediation.  The Bay 
Area is fortunate to have a Congressional delegation with the experience to 
respond to a disaster of this nature, and the delegation is working together to 
ensure that the federal, state, and local efforts are coordinated and that 
additional resources are available as needed.  

My colleagues and I are working together with the appropriate authorities to 
examine the causes of the accident and the response to it in order to prevent 
mistakes of this magnitude from being repeated.  The House Transportation 
and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime 
Transportation is investigating the spill and held a field hearing in San 
Francisco on November 19.  I have also called for an investigation of the 
Coast Guard's response by the Inspector General.  

With the clean-up efforts underway, responsible parties must be held to 
account for their actions.  If the company is found to be at fault for the 
accident, then they must pay for the damages.  The Coast Guard must also 
be held accountable for any delays in responding to the spill, discrepancies 
in reporting the severity of the spill to local officials and deficiencies in the 
Bay's navigation system.  The public should have confidence that those 
responsible will be held accountable and that mistakes will not occur again 
in future disasters.  Working together we will restore the beauty of the Bay.  

Thank you for taking the time to contact me on this issue.  For more 
information on this and other issues, I invite you to visit my website at 
www.house.gov/pelosi.  I hope you will continue to communicate with me 
on matters of concern to you.

Sincerely,


Nancy Pelosi
Member of Congress