This opinion piece highlights the lack of impact of Environmental and Impact Assessments (EIA) in developing countries and the faults in current analysis of why this is the case. I draw on the political economy literature to propose alternative explanations. When political economy theories are applied, it becomes clearer why the possibility for effective implementation of EIA in many developing countries is low. This raises many questions about the potential for EIA to facilitate the management of the negative impacts of extractives in developing countries.