Maybe that´s why the drubbing the White House is taking over its environmental policies at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Montreal this week seem harsher than usual. For a taste of what I mean, here´s the latest on the U.N. conference from the Associated Press; MSNBC; Forbes.com; BBC News; and the Sydney Morning Herald. And, oh yeah, almost forgot -- in case you missed it at the top of this e-mail, here is the latest on the U.N. climate conference from Waste News.

Environmentalists really seem to be acting as if they smell blood in the water. And growing rift between the president and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been one of our staunchest allies, is especially troubling.

Following up on the item that appeared in this space Tuesday about the scandal in Lexington, Ky., over how waste collection workers are paid, a reader, Jay Donnaway, sent me an e-mail that sheds light on the practice of paying workers undertime (as opposed to overtime). Donnaway, a senior solid waste policy analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, has this to say about it:

"I´m familiar with the practice from my time among local government hauling operations in the Southeastern U.S. Basically, the idea is that if a route driver is more efficient, traffic is light, or the moon is in the seventh house, you don´t want to penalize his good fortune by making him clock out early. Worse yet, drivers will otherwise tie up traffic by sandbagging their way through the day to properly time their return to the yard, and if there´s no black box or vehicle GPS, take a nap in some scenic parking spot. So productivity is encouraged by allowing drivers to go home early if they finish their route early. The system breaks down when undertime becomes a regular or expected benefit, and route redesign is overlooked or additional duties aren´t assigned to fill the shift. Undertime can be a useful management tool for otherwise underpaid city workers, when not abused. (All opinions expressed herein are personal and not endorsed by my employer.)"

That´s an excellent explanation, and I can see the point of undertime. Still, I´m inclined to think that, human nature being what it is, when you start offering a benefit like that, it´s almost inevitable that workers will eventually come to expect it on a regular basis. The eye-popping statistic from the original article about other cities averaging 2.5 hours of undertime per 10-hour shift (versus Lexington´s beyond-the-pale 5.6 hours) seems to support this inkling.

There have to be ways to pay city waste workers and reward them for productivity that don´t smell so fishy. Modest pay raises? Slightly shorter shifts? Bonus-point-and-pay systems for workers who finish routes early? Anybody have any other ideas?

That´s enough Inbox for today. It´s a tad earlier than I usually finish, but my boss doesn´t pay undertime, so I think I´ll go look for a scenic parking spot ...