diff --git a/tempest/config.py b/tempest/config.py
index 3c7241a..9ab9a09 100644
--- a/tempest/config.py
+++ b/tempest/config.py
@@ -715,9 +715,7 @@
 
         path = os.path.join(conf_dir, conf_file)
 
-        if not (os.path.isfile(path) or
-                'TEMPEST_CONFIG_DIR' in os.environ or
-                'TEMPEST_CONFIG' in os.environ):
+        if not os.path.isfile(path):
             path = failsafe_path
 
         # only parse the config file if we expect one to exist. This is needed