The chairman of the House committee that's grilling BP's chief executive says the oil company "cut corner after corner" and that led to the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rep. Henry Waxman also says there's no evidence that BP's Tony Hayward and other company executives paid any attention to the "tremendous risk" that BP was taking in its deepwater drilling project in the Gulf.

The California Democrat told Hayward at the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Thursday that there's no indication BP executives "paid even the slightest attention to the dangers of this well."

Hayward's appearance at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing is his first before Congress since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20.