diff --git a/lib/tool_shed/util/xml_util.py b/lib/tool_shed/util/xml_util.py
index 330cd09b5d4..451d2e2f939 100644
--- a/lib/tool_shed/util/xml_util.py
+++ b/lib/tool_shed/util/xml_util.py
@@ -11,19 +11,6 @@ log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 using_python_27 = sys.version_info[:2] >= (2, 7)
 
 
-class Py26CommentedTreeBuilder(XmlET.XMLTreeBuilder):
-    # Python 2.6 uses ElementTree 1.2.x.
-
-    def __init__(self, html=0, target=None):
-        XmlET.XMLTreeBuilder.__init__(self, html, target)
-        self._parser.CommentHandler = self.handle_comment
-
-    def handle_comment(self, data):
-        self._target.start(XmlET.Comment, {})
-        self._target.data(data)
-        self._target.end(XmlET.Comment)
-
-
 class Py27CommentedTreeBuilder(XmlET.TreeBuilder):
     # Python 2.7 uses ElementTree 1.3.x.
 
@@ -133,7 +120,7 @@ def parse_xml(file_name):
             return None, error_message
     else:
         try:
-            tree = XmlET.parse(fobj, parser=Py26CommentedTreeBuilder())
+            tree = XmlET.parse(fobj)
         except Exception as e:
             fobj.close()
             error_message = "Exception attempting to parse %s: %s" % (str(file_name), str(e))