PENSACOLA, Fla. &#8212 The BP oil slick drifted perilously close to the Florida

Panhandle&#8217s famous sugar-white beaches Wednesday as a risky gambit to contain the leak by

shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea when the diamond-tipped saw

became stuck.

The saw had sliced through about half of the pipe when it snagged, and it took BP 12 hours

to free it. The company said preparations were being made to resume cutting, but it

didn&#8217t give a timetable on when that might happen.

The plan is to fit a cap on the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to

capture most of the spewing oil; the twisted, broken pipe must be sliced first to allow a snug

fit.

&#8220I don&#8217t think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut. It&#8217s

about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it,&#8221 said Coast Guard Adm. Thad

Allen, the government&#8217s point man for the crisis.

As the edge of the slick drifted within seven miles of Pensacola&#8217s beaches, emergency

workers rushed to link the last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil.

They were stymied by thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon.

Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network

of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist

destination.

&#8220We are doing what we can do, but we cannot change what has happened,&#8221 said John

Dosh, emergency director for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola.

Since the biggest oil spill in U.S. history began to unfold April 20 with an explosion that

killed 11 workers aboard an offshore drilling rig, crude has fouled about 125 miles of

Louisiana coastline and washed up in Alabama and Mississippi as well. Over the past six weeks,

the well has leaked anywhere from 21 million to 45 million gallons according to the

government&#8217s estimate.

The latest attempt to control the leak is considered risky because slicing a section of the

20-inch-wide riser pipe could remove kinks in the pipe and temporarily increase the flow of

oil by as much as 20 percent.

If the strategy fails &#8212 like every other attempt to control the leak 5,000 feet

underwater &#8212 the best hope is probably a relief well, which is being drilled but is at

least two months from completion.

As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the water, cast

fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men said

they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants.

A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she

has been visiting for years. &#8220You sit on the edge of your seat, and you wonder where

it&#8217s going,&#8221 she said. &#8220It&#8217s the saddest thing.&#8221

Officials said part of the slick sighted offshore consisted of &#8220tar mats&#8221 about

500 feet by 2,000 feet in size.

County officials set up the booms to block oil from reaching inland waterways but planned

to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to defend against the action of

the waves and because they are easier to clean up.

&#8220It&#8217s inevitable that we will see it on the beaches,&#8221 said Keith Wilkins,

deputy chief of neighborhood and community services for Escambia County.

Florida&#8217s beaches play a crucial role in the state&#8217s tourism industry. At least

60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities.

Worried that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting

interactive Web maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers &#8212 particularly those from

overseas &#8212 how large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the

spill.

In other developments:

Speaking in Pittsburgh, President Obama said it is time to roll back billions of

dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and

development.

Addressing a Carnegie Mellon University audience, Obama said he supports more domestic

offshore drilling &#8220only if it&#8217s used as a short-term solution while we transition to

a clean energy economy.&#8221

He also said he would be personally involved in finding enough votes in Congress to pass

legislation that limits carbon emissions and redirects the flow of private investment toward

cleaner energy alternatives. That should go hand in hand with encouraging energy-efficient

products, reducing tax breaks for oil companies, tapping natural gas reserves and expanding

nuclear power, he said.

He plans to be interviewed at 9 p.m. today on CNN&#8217s &#8220Larry King Live.&#8221

More fishing grounds were closed. More than one-third of federal waters in the gulf

are now off-limits to fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.

BP CEO Tony Hayward apologized for what he called a &#8220hurtful and thoughtless

comment&#8221 about the spill that he made Sunday when he told reporters that he wanted his

life back. &#8220I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in

this tragic accident,&#8221 he said.

Two Democratic senators are pressing BP to delay plans to pay shareholder dividends

worth an expected $10 billion or more until the full costs for cleaning up the oil spill are

calculated. Sens. Charles E. Schumer of New York and Ron Wyden of Oregon called it

&#8220unfathomable&#8221 that BP would pay out a dividend to shareholders before the total

cost of the cleanup is known.