The Huffington Post's Sam Stein made a nice catch this morning. In late June, Rep. Mark Kirk urged the suburban transit agency Pace to use its stimulus haul to purchase hybrid buses as opposed to 58 older-technology diesel buses it intended to buy. "It's time for Pace to go green," Kirk said at a news conference. Last week, Kirk submitted a letter to the Highland Park News explaining his rationale:

While hybrid buses are more expensive than diesel buses ($500,000 vs. $320,000), a hybrid bus will use approximately 30,000 gallons less fuel over its lifetime. A new hybrid fleet could save more than 1 million gallons of fuel and eliminate 10,500 tons of greenhouse gases, saving taxpayers at least $2.6 million in diesel costs alone. Those savings will only increase as diesel prices rise.

Sensible enough, right? Well check out this new letter to the editor, penned by Pace chairman Richard Kwasneski. Aside from questioning Kirk's math, Kwasneski points out that the Republican wasn't too keen on the idea of investing in hybrid buses when the agency has brought it up before:

Pace approached Congressman Kirk for five straight years requesting federal funding to add hybrid buses to our fleet, and each time the request was ignored. Had he taken action, it's very likely Pace would not only purchase hybrid buses with federal stimulus money as he's now asking us to do, but we would already have them out on the road today.

Kirk was asked about the claim last month. "Pace has received a record amount of funds," he told the Tribune. "I think they should choose the higher-technology, lower-emissions option.” Of course, if Kirk had his way, the stimulus never would have passed and Pace wouldn't have the cash at all.

Image used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr user Chili_bob.