Highlights - BP top exec faces U.S. lawmakers' wrath

The hearing marks BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward's first appearance before Congress, where he is facing U.S. lawmakers' wrath. Hayward will try to spread the blame for the April 20 rig explosion and the massive oil spill.

LATEST QUOTES

REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN - FULL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

"We have reviewed 30,000 pages of documents from BP, including your e-mails. There is not a single e-mail that shows you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well."

Waxman said an e-mail from BP's operations drilling engineer, who oversaw BP's team of drilling engineers, showed the firm's corporate attitude. Waxman said after learning of the risks and BP's decision to ignore them, he wrote "who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine."

REPRESENTATIVE BART STUPAK - SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Stupak said BP disregarded questionable results from pressure tests after cementing the well and selected the riskier of the two options for their well design, among other decisions where it cut corners to save time and money.

He noted that Halliburton warned BP they could have a "severe gas flow problem" if they lowered the final string of casing with only six centralizers instead of the 21 Halliburton recommended. BP rejected it in an April 16 email, saying: "It will take 10 hours to install them ... I do not like this."

BP had a "cavalier attitude towards assessing risk," something that was unbelievable given previous accidents at North Slope and Texas City Refinery, Stupak said.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DINGELL - DEMOCRAT

"BP has a history of cutting corners for the almighty dollar."

EARLIER QUOTES

REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN - FULL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

"BP cut corner after corner to save a million dollars here and a few hours or days there. And now the whole Gulf is paying the price."

He added there was no evidence Hayward paid attention to the "tremendous risks" BP was taking.

REPRESENTATIVE JOE BARTON - FULL COMMITTEE TOP REPUBLICAN

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a $20 billion (13.5 billion pound) shakedown."

"I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologise."

REPRESENTATIVE BART STUPAK - SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

"We have learned that time and time again BP officials had warning signs that this was -- as one employee put it -- 'a nightmare well.' They made choices that set safety aside in exchange for cost-cutting and time-saving decisions."

THIS ITEM WILL BE UPDATED

(Editing by Philip Barbara)