diff --git a/cloud_governance/main/environment_variables.py b/cloud_governance/main/environment_variables.py
index 6349c580..89a142db 100644
--- a/cloud_governance/main/environment_variables.py
+++ b/cloud_governance/main/environment_variables.py
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ def __init__(self):
             EnvironmentVariables.get_env('POLICIES_TO_ALERT', '[]'))
         self._environment_variables_dict['ADMIN_MAIL_LIST'] = EnvironmentVariables.get_env('ADMIN_MAIL_LIST', '')
         self._environment_variables_dict['SKIP_POLICIES_ALERT'] = literal_eval(
-            EnvironmentVariables.get_env('SKIP_POLICIES_ALERT', "['']"))
+            EnvironmentVariables.get_env('SKIP_POLICIES_ALERT', '[]'))
         if self._environment_variables_dict.get('policy') in ['send_aggregated_alerts', 'cloudability_cost_reports']:
             self._environment_variables_dict['COMMON_POLICIES'] = True
         # CRO -- Cloud Resource Orch