This article analyzes the situation of the most important instrument of command and control existing in the Colombian environmental legislation: the environmental license. Since its first formal regulation, on behalf of Decree 1753 of August 3, 1994, has received several modifications which, apparently, have made, in spite of its importance, in an instrument of command and control by exception. The article revises on the scope of each of the modifications and the justifications put forward by the government of the day, to establish if indeed they were founded on strict gains against the control of environmental impacts from projects, works or activities, or if, on the contrary, the changes correspond to other outside interests to strict environmental control.