BP executive used Wikipedia as a source when discussing lsst year's oil spill

As I noted in my previous post, today's column in The Telegraph is about Wikipedia, and how the Nashua Public Library prefers Britannica Online. But before I link you there, I want to note a wonderful story in Treehugger, which claims that when a senior BP executive wanted to find out the size of the DeepWater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he turned not to corporate scientists but to Wikipedia! From court filings:

Mr. Rainey used information gleaned from the online encyclopedia to estimate that the Deepwater rig was leaking 5,000 barrels of oil a day. And he stuck to that figure, defending his calculation vigorously in public and before the U.S. Congress despite calls from many others, including some BP engineers, that it was far too low.

This is an executive, David Rainey, who is facing charges of lying to Congress.

Here's the Treehugger article.

And here's my column.