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By Greg Blustein and Brian Skoloff, Associated Press Writers


      PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) - The risky effort to contain the
nation's worst oil spill hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-edged
saw became stuck in a thick pipe on a blown-out well at the bottom
of the Gulf of Mexico.


      Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the goal was to free the saw
and finish the cut later in the day. This is the latest attempt to
contain - not plug - the gusher. The best chance at stopping the
leak is a relief well, which is at least two months from
completion.


      "I don't think the issue is whether or not we can make the
second cut. It's about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can
make it," Allen said.


      If crews make the cut, they will try to place a cap on top of
the oil spewing out. This cut-and-cap effort could temporarily
increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent, though Allen
said officials wouldn't know whether that had happened until the
cut could be completed.


      Engineers may have to bring in a second saw if the delay
continues, and they are shooting chemical dispersants at the oil
leaking out of the new cut. Allen said once the cut is made, crews
will inspect it and the cap could be placed over the spill as early
as Wednesday.


      The effort underwater was going on as oil drifted close to the
Florida Panhandle's white sand beaches for the first time and
investors ran from BP's stock for a second day, reacting to the
company's failure to plug the leak by shooting mud and cement into
the well, known as the top kill.


      The Justice Department also has announced it started criminal
and civil probes into the spill, although the department did not
name specific targets for prosecution.


      Shares in British-based BP PLC were down 3 percent Wednesday
morning in London trading after a 13 percent fall the day before.
BP has lost $75 billion in market value since the spill started
with an April 20 oil rig explosion and analysts expect damage
claims to total billions more.


      In Florida, officials confirmed an oil sheen Tuesday about nine
miles from Pensacola beach, where the summer tourism season was
just getting started.


      Winds were forecast to blow from the south and west, pushing the
slick closer to western Panhandle beaches.


      Emergency crews began scouring the beaches for oil and shoring
up miles of boom. County officials will use it to block oil from
reaching inland waterways but plan to leave beaches unprotected
because they are too difficult to protect and easier to clean up.


      "It's inevitable that we will see it on the beaches," said
Keith Wilkins, deputy chief of neighborhood and community services
for Escambia County.


      The oil has been spreading in the Gulf since the Deepwater
Horizon rig exploded six weeks ago, killing 11 workers and
eventually sinking. The rig was being operated for BP, the largest
oil and gas producer in the Gulf.


      Crude has already been reported along barrier islands in Alabama
and Mississippi, and it has polluted some 125 miles of Louisiana
coastline.


      More federal fishing waters were closed, too, another setback
for one of the region's most important industries. More than
one-third of federal waters were off-limits for fishing, along with
hundreds of square miles of state waters.


      Fisherman Hong Le, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam, had
rebuilt his home and business after Hurricane Katrina wiped him
out. Now he's facing a similar situation.


      "I'm going to be bankrupt very soon," Le, 53, said as he
attended a meeting for fishermen hoping for help. "Everything is
financed, how can I pay? No fishing, no welding. I weld on
commercial fishing boats and they aren't going out now, so nothing
breaks."


      Le, like other of the fishermen, received $5,000 from BP PLC,
but it was quickly gone.


      "I call that 'Shut your mouth money,"' said Murray Volk, 46,
of Empire, who's been fishing for nearly 30 years. "That won't pay
the insurance on my boat and house. They say there'll be more
later, but do you think the electric company will wait for that?"

      BP may have bigger problems, though.


      Attorney General Eric Holder, who visited the Gulf on Tuesday,
would not say who might be targeted in the probes into the largest
oil spill in U.S. history.


      "We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the
spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be
extremely forceful in our response," Holder said in New Orleans.


      The federal government also ramped up its response to the spill
with President Barack Obama ordering the co-chairmen of an
independent commission investigating the spill to thoroughly
examine the disaster, "to follow the facts wherever they lead,
without fear or favor."


      The president said that if laws are insufficient, they'll be
changed. He said that if government oversight wasn't tough enough,
that will change, too.


      BP has tried and failed repeatedly to halt the flow of the oil,
and the latest attempt like others has never been tried before a
mile beneath the ocean. Experts warned it could be even riskier
than the others because slicing open the 20-inch riser could
unleash more oil if there was a kink in the pipe that restricted
some of the flow.


      "It is an engineer's nightmare," said Ed Overton, a Louisiana
State University professor of environmental sciences. "They're
trying to fit a 21-inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That's
just horrendously hard to do. It's not like you and I standing on
the ground pushing - they're using little robots to do this."


      Engineers have put underwater robots and equipment in place this
week after a bold attempt to plug the well by force-feeding it
heavy mud and cement - called a "top kill" - was aborted over the
weekend. Crews pumped thousands of gallons of the mud into the well
but were unable to overcome the pressure of the oil.


      The company said if the small dome is successful it could
capture and siphon a majority of the gushing oil to the surface.
But the cut and cap will not halt the oil flow, just capture some
of it and funnel it to vessels waiting at the surface.


      BP's best chance to permanently plug the leak rests with a pair
of relief wells but those won't likely be completed until August.


      Bluestein reported from Covington, La. Associated Press writers
Darlene Superville and Pete Yost from Washington, Curt Anderson
from Miami, Kevin McGill in Schriever, Brian Skoloff in Port
Fourchon, Mary Foster in Boothville, and Michael Kunzelman in New
Orleans also contributed to this report.
      

Gallery

Feds open criminal probe of Gulf oil spill

Will the oil spill change your behavior?

Disasters

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen is saying that
a saw has become stuck as it was cutting through a pipe on a busted
well, stalling the latest attempt to contain the Gulf oil gusher.

Effort to contain Gulf oil stalls with stuck saw

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