diff --git a/Modules/main.c b/Modules/main.c
@@ -466,6 +466,7 @@ pymain_free(_PyMain *pymain)
       remain valid after Py_Finalize(), since
       Py_Initialize()-Py_Finalize() can be called multiple times. */
    _PyPathConfig_ClearGlobal();

    /* Force the allocator used by pymain_read_conf() */
    PyMemAllocatorEx old_alloc;
@@ -1262,7 +1263,6 @@ pymain_read_conf_impl(_PyMain *pymain, _PyCoreConfig *config,
        return -1;
    }

-    assert(config->use_environment >= 0);
    if (config->use_environment) {
        err = cmdline_init_env_warnoptions(pymain, config, cmdline);
        if (_Py_INIT_FAILED(err)) {