diff --git a/planet.py b/planet.py
index 0b6783f..d3346e1 100755
--- a/planet.py
+++ b/planet.py
@@ -41,14 +41,17 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         else:
             config_file = arg
 
+    from planet import config
+    config.load(config_file)
+
     if verbose:
         import planet
         planet.getLogger('DEBUG')
 
     if not offline:
         from planet import spider
-        spider.spiderPlanet(config_file)
+        spider.spiderPlanet()
 
     from planet import splice
-    doc = splice.splice(config_file)
+    doc = splice.splice()
     splice.apply(doc.toxml('utf-8'))
diff --git a/planet/spider.py b/planet/spider.py
index 8c24d32..7ee0054 100644
--- a/planet/spider.py
+++ b/planet/spider.py
@@ -180,9 +180,8 @@ def spiderFeed(feed):
         write(output, cache_file) 
         os.utime(cache_file, (mtime, mtime))
 
-def spiderPlanet(configFile):
+def spiderPlanet():
     """ Spider (fetch) an entire planet """
-    config.load(configFile)
     log = planet.getLogger(config.log_level())
     planet.setTimeout(config.feed_timeout())
 
diff --git a/planet/splice.py b/planet/splice.py
index 5fc9d96..53c24ad 100644
--- a/planet/splice.py
+++ b/planet/splice.py
@@ -5,10 +5,9 @@ import planet, config, feedparser, reconstitute, shell
 from reconstitute import createTextElement, date
 from spider import filename
 
-def splice(configFile):
+def splice():
     """ Splice together a planet from a cache of entries """
     import planet
-    config.load(configFile)
     log = planet.getLogger(config.log_level())
 
     log.info("Loading cached data")
diff --git a/spider.py b/spider.py
index e4aab2e..22b7da2 100755
--- a/spider.py
+++ b/spider.py
@@ -8,12 +8,13 @@ from planet import spider, config
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
 
+    config.load(sys.argv[1])
+
     if len(sys.argv) == 2:
         # spider all feeds 
-        spider.spiderPlanet(sys.argv[1])
+        spider.spiderPlanet()
     elif len(sys.argv) > 2:
         # spider selected feeds 
-        config.load(sys.argv[1])
         for feed in sys.argv[2:]:
             spider.spiderFeed(feed)
     else:
diff --git a/splice.py b/splice.py
index 580015b..d27a6d5 100755
--- a/splice.py
+++ b/splice.py
@@ -5,14 +5,13 @@ Main program to run just the splice portion of planet
 
 import os.path
 import sys
-from planet import splice
+from planet import splice, config
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
 
     if len(sys.argv) == 2 and os.path.isfile(sys.argv[1]):
-        # at the moment, we don't have template support, so we cheat and
-        # simply insert a XSLT processing instruction
-        doc = splice.splice(sys.argv[1])
+        config.load(sys.argv[1])
+        doc = splice.splice()
         splice.apply(doc.toxml('utf-8'))
     else:
         print "Usage:"
diff --git a/tests/test_spider.py b/tests/test_spider.py
index 3549392..e3e2061 100644
--- a/tests/test_spider.py
+++ b/tests/test_spider.py
@@ -66,7 +66,8 @@ class SpiderTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.test_spiderFeed()
 
     def test_spiderPlanet(self):
-        spiderPlanet(configfile)
+        config.load(configfile)
+        spiderPlanet()
         files = glob.glob(workdir+"/*")
 
         # verify that exactly eight files + 1 source dir were produced
diff --git a/tests/test_splice.py b/tests/test_splice.py
index b34236e..6f2807a 100644
--- a/tests/test_splice.py
+++ b/tests/test_splice.py
@@ -1,14 +1,15 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 import unittest
-from planet.splice import splice
+from planet.splice import splice, config
 
 configfile = 'tests/data/splice/config.ini'
 
 class SpliceTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_splice(self):
-        doc = splice(configfile)
+        config.load(configfile)
+        doc = splice()
         self.assertEqual(12,len(doc.getElementsByTagName('entry')))
         self.assertEqual(4,len(doc.getElementsByTagName('planet:source')))
         self.assertEqual(16,len(doc.getElementsByTagName('planet:name')))