diff --git a/services/core/Ambient/tests/test_ambient_agent.py b/services/core/Ambient/tests/test_ambient_agent.py
index b50ec44d53..6c7d56c448 100644
--- a/services/core/Ambient/tests/test_ambient_agent.py
+++ b/services/core/Ambient/tests/test_ambient_agent.py
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@
                                                        "test_ambient_data.json"
                                                        " variable app_key")
 
+pytestmark = [pytestmark_api, pytestmark_app, pytestmark_locs]
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="module")
 def query_agent(request, volttron_instance):
diff --git a/volttron/platform/agent/utils.py b/volttron/platform/agent/utils.py
index 285722a486..1cff227b9b 100644
--- a/volttron/platform/agent/utils.py
+++ b/volttron/platform/agent/utils.py
@@ -156,7 +156,10 @@ def load_config(config_path):
     # Then if that fails we fallback to our modified json parser.
     try:
         with open(config_path) as f:
-            return yaml.safe_load(f.read())
+            config = yaml.safe_load(f.read())
+            if config is None:
+                return {}
+            return config
     except yaml.scanner.ScannerError as e:
         try:
             with open(config_path) as f: