--- a/src/configure
+++ b/src/configure
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 supplied_racket=no
 supplied_scheme=no
 enable_boothelp=
-CC_FOR_BUILD='$(CC) -O2'
 
 # We don't have to detect conflicts like `--enable-csdefault --enable-bcdefault`,
 # since the `configure` scripts will do that, but  we have to figure out which
