ensure that npm environmental config gets used

Fixes npm/npm#6483.

/cc @iarna for review / knowledge-sharing @wilmoore because he identified this bug.
Since we started down the road of talking about style and eslint rules, I may as well bring up this inconsistency that I've noticed throughout.  This line shows `"name" :` (notice the space before and after the `:` character). In other places in the file there is no space before and no space after. Perhaps just settle on one style and let eslint drive that so it starts to become consistent.