environment.rb

#asset pipeline on
config.assets.enabled = true

#dont load the whole damn app and connect to the db to precompile
config.assets.initialize_on_precompile = false

# turn off compression entirely
config.assets.compress = false

#OR for css/js explicitly 
# see http://guides.rubyonrails.org/asset_pipeline.html#using-your-own-compressor
class NullCompressor
  def compress(string)
    string
  end
end
config.assets.css_compressor = NullCompressor.new
config.assets.js_compressor = NullCompressor.new