At an oil industry gathering in Washington, D.C., an executive from another company asked the then CEO of Exxon, Lee Raymond, to consider building additional refinery capacity inside the United States "for security" against possible shortages of gasoline. According to those present, Raymond replied, "I not a u company and I don't make decisions based on what's good for the US." Raymond's statement recalls the warning by Thomas Jefferson in 1809, barely a month after leaving the White House, when he wrote to John Jay about "the selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain