diff --git a/tools/noproxy b/tools/noproxy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d371e63c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/noproxy
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# clean http_proxy variables from environment as they make httpretty
+# fail, but may be in the environment for reasons such as pip install
+import os
+import sys
+
+for k in ('http_proxy', 'https_proxy', 'HTTP_PROXY', 'HTTPS_PROXY'):
+    if k in os.environ:
+        del os.environ[k]
+
+os.execvpe(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[1:], os.environ)
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 5d6e861f..9621c452 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -13,13 +13,13 @@ setenv = VIRTUAL_ENV={envdir}
     LC_ALL = en_US.utf-8
 deps = -r{toxinidir}/test-requirements.txt
     -r{toxinidir}/requirements.txt
-commands = nosetests {posargs}
+commands = {envpython} {toxinidir}/tools/noproxy nosetests {posargs}
 
 [testenv:py27-coverage]
-commands = nosetests --with-coverage --cover-erase --cover-package=cloudinit --cover-min-percentage=90 --cover-html {posargs}
+commands = {envpython} {toxinidir}/tools/noproxy nosetests --with-coverage --cover-erase --cover-package=cloudinit --cover-min-percentage=90 --cover-html {posargs}
 
 [testenv:py34-coverage]
-commands = nosetests --with-coverage --cover-erase --cover-package=cloudinit --cover-min-percentage=90 --cover-html {posargs}
+commands = {envpython} {toxinidir}/tools/noproxy nosetests --with-coverage --cover-erase --cover-package=cloudinit --cover-min-percentage=90 --cover-html {posargs}
 
 [testenv:pep8]
 commands = flake8 {posargs}