diff --git a/lib/folio_client.rb b/lib/folio_client.rb
index 7e915cb09..a9e65ad20 100644
--- a/lib/folio_client.rb
+++ b/lib/folio_client.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class FolioClient
 
   attr_reader :base_url
 
-  def initialize(url: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_URL'), username: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_USER', nil), password: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_PASSWORD', nil), tenant: 'sul')
+  def initialize(url: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_URL', ''), username: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_USER', nil), password: ENV.fetch('OKAPI_PASSWORD', nil), tenant: 'sul')
     uri = URI.parse(url)
 
     @base_url = url
diff --git a/lib/traject/config/folio_config.rb b/lib/traject/config/folio_config.rb
index cd137736a..64e3b0047 100644
--- a/lib/traject/config/folio_config.rb
+++ b/lib/traject/config/folio_config.rb
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
     require './lib/traject/readers/folio_json_reader'
   else
     provide 'reader_class_name', 'Traject::FolioReader'
-    provide 'folio.client', FolioClient.new(url: self['okapi.url'] || ENV.fetch('OKAPI_URL', nil))
+    provide 'folio.client', FolioClient.new(url: self['okapi.url'] || ENV.fetch('OKAPI_URL', ''))
   end
 
   provide 'skip_empty_item_display', -1
diff --git a/lib/traject/readers/kafka_folio_reader.rb b/lib/traject/readers/kafka_folio_reader.rb
index 59017eafb..ab6b324c9 100644
--- a/lib/traject/readers/kafka_folio_reader.rb
+++ b/lib/traject/readers/kafka_folio_reader.rb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ class Traject::KafkaFolioReader
 
   def initialize(_input_stream, settings)
     @settings = Traject::Indexer::Settings.new settings
-    @client = settings['folio.client'] || FolioClient.new
+    @client = settings['folio.client']
   end
 
   def each