diff --git a/stackrc b/stackrc
index c9acdbe..d30bf66 100644
--- a/stackrc
+++ b/stackrc
@@ -76,6 +76,11 @@
         IMAGE_URLS="http://launchpad.net/cirros/trunk/0.3.0/+download/cirros-0.3.0-x86_64-uec.tar.gz";;
 esac
 
+# use stored ec2 env variables
+if [ -f ./ec2rc ]; then
+    source ./ec2rc
+fi
+
 # allow local overrides of env variables
 if [ -f ./localrc ]; then
     source ./localrc