The student newspaper at USF St. Petersburg
November 12 - 18, 2013 | Volume 48 | Issue 12
Murrow Program returns pg. 3
It’s time for a comeback: How the Bulls could pull it off p. 8 crowsneststpete.com
What keeps the lights on at USFSP? Though USF St. Petersburg is a green-leaning university, its power supplier hinders clean energy usage By Ryan Ballogg to take non-renewable energy out of the Staff Reporter equation in Florida, and they are startRoughly 82 percent of the energy ing with coal. This week, Sierra Club will launch a USF St. Petersburg purchases comes from non-renewable resources, accord- local “Beyond Coal” campaign, as part ing to a 2013 fuel mix report from Duke of a national endeavor to retire a third or Energy. The other 18 percent is attrib- more of the nation’s coal plants by 2020. uted to “purchase power,” or energy that So far, Sierra Club has been involved in Duke purchases from other providers. retiring 152 plants, which means they Renewable energy and biomass fuel are have either shut down or set a definite included in this category, though the closing date. In Florida, the group will target Duke numbers are not specific. Florida is a regulated energy state, Energy first, and attempt to persuade which means it is divided into desig- Duke officials to shut down the four coal nated service areas. Within those service plants at Crystal River. The program also advocates installareas, customers must purchase energy from the designated provider — which ing clean energy sources once the coal is for Pinellas County and USFSP is Duke gone. Sierra Club attributes coal as a factor Energy. Duke’s fuel mix of non-renew- in climate disruption, pollution, natural resource ables for the area includes “They just don’t want to do the right destruction serious natural gas, thing and move away from coal, and health hazoil and coal power. Coal, because it’s so cheap ... but they’re ards including which has not paying for the health costs, asthma. “It’s bad the highest Carbon they’re not paying for the pollution.” for everything -- Julia Hathaway, Sierra Club that breathes,” Dioxide said Julia emissions Hathaway, of the nonrenewable energy sources, accounts for the coordinator of the “Beyond Coal” movement for Suncoast Sierra Club. 25 percent of the fuel mix. USF St. Petersburg purchased an Hathaway said the mercury pollution average of 1,884,601 kilowatt hours of produced as a byproduct of coal burning energy per month for July, August and also contaminates the ocean and leads September. This equates to an average of to toxic mercury levels in fish. “That’s why pregnant women are told 471,150 kilowatt hours per month from coal-based energy for USFSP this fiscal they can only eat a card-deck sized piece of fish. It causes neurological damage in year. The Sunshine State Clean Energy the fetus,” Hathaway said. Coalition and the Suncoast branch of the Sierra Club, which has an office on Se SOLAR, p. 3 Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, want Chelsea Tatham/The Crow’s Nest
Alumnus fatally shot near campus College of Business grad Eddy D. Vasquez was killed by a friend, police say
By Tyler Killette Staff Reporter Eddy D. Vasquez, 27, was shot in the torso near the Publix on Third Street S. around 4 a.m. on Saturday,
Nov. 9. He died from his injuries about two hours later at Bayfront Medical Center. Vasquez lived in Gainesville but graduated from USF St. Petersburg in 2010 with a degree in business
administration. According to the Tampa Bay Times, he was back in town for a wedding and went bar hopping with friends afterward. One of these friends was Andres Rodriguez Torres (other
news sources have referred to him as Andres J. Torres), 26, who had attended USFSP with Vasquez. According to police, he was also Vasquez’s killer. Details of the event are unclear
but investigators believe the shooting occurred after a fight broke out between the two men.
See VASQUEZ, p. 2