diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/config.go b/builtin/providers/aws/config.go
index 6fae6ac10..32b3af623 100644
--- a/builtin/providers/aws/config.go
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/config.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package aws
 
 import (
+	"os"
 	"strings"
 	"unicode"
 
@@ -36,6 +37,10 @@ func (c *Config) AWSRegion() (aws.Region, error) {
 		return aws.Regions[c.Region], nil
 	}
 
+	if v := os.Getenv("AWS_REGION"); v != "" {
+		return aws.Regions[v], nil
+	}
+
 	md, err := aws.GetMetaData("placement/availability-zone")
 	if err != nil {
 		return aws.Region{}, err
diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_vpc_test.go b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_vpc_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..30c3fe7ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_aws_vpc_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+package aws
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/resource"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/terraform"
+	"github.com/mitchellh/goamz/ec2"
+)
+
+func TestAccVpc(t *testing.T) {
+	testAccPreCheck(t)
+
+	resource.Test(t, resource.TestCase{
+		Providers:    testAccProviders,
+		CheckDestroy: testAccCheckVpcDestroy,
+		Steps: []resource.TestStep{
+			resource.TestStep{
+				Config: testAccVpcConfig,
+				Check:  testAccCheckVpcExists("aws_vpc.foo"),
+			},
+		},
+	})
+}
+
+func testAccCheckVpcDestroy(s *terraform.State) error {
+	conn := testAccProvider.ec2conn
+
+	for _, rs := range s.Resources {
+		if rs.Type != "aws_vpc" {
+			continue
+		}
+
+		// Try to find the VPC
+		resp, err := conn.DescribeVpcs([]string{rs.ID}, ec2.NewFilter())
+		if err == nil {
+			if len(resp.VPCs) > 0 {
+				return fmt.Errorf("VPCs still exist.")
+			}
+
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		// Verify the error is what we want
+		ec2err, ok := err.(*ec2.Error)
+		if !ok {
+			return err
+		}
+		if ec2err.Code != "InvalidVpcID.NotFound" {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+func testAccCheckVpcExists(n string) resource.TestCheckFunc {
+	return func(s *terraform.State) error {
+		rs, ok := s.Resources[n]
+		if !ok {
+			return fmt.Errorf("Not found: %s", n)
+		}
+
+		if rs.ID == "" {
+			return fmt.Errorf("No VPC ID is set")
+		}
+
+		conn := testAccProvider.ec2conn
+		resp, err := conn.DescribeVpcs([]string{rs.ID}, ec2.NewFilter())
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if len(resp.VPCs) == 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("VPC not found")
+		}
+
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
+const testAccVpcConfig = `
+resource "aws_vpc" "foo" {
+	cidr_block = "10.1.0.0/16"
+}
+`
diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider.go b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider.go
index f5ada7080..38ddbeba7 100644
--- a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider.go
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider.go
@@ -20,7 +20,15 @@ type ResourceProvider struct {
 }
 
 func (p *ResourceProvider) Validate(c *terraform.ResourceConfig) ([]string, []error) {
-	return nil, nil
+	v := &config.Validator{
+		Optional: []string{
+			"access_key",
+			"secret_key",
+			"region",
+		},
+	}
+
+	return v.Validate(c)
 }
 
 func (p *ResourceProvider) ValidateResource(
@@ -36,24 +44,24 @@ func (p *ResourceProvider) Configure(c *terraform.ResourceConfig) error {
 	// Get the auth and region. This can fail if keys/regions were not
 	// specified and we're attempting to use the environment.
 	var errs []error
-	log.Println("Building AWS auth structure")
+	log.Println("[INFO] Building AWS auth structure")
 	auth, err := p.Config.AWSAuth()
 	if err != nil {
 		errs = append(errs, err)
 	}
 
-	log.Println("Building AWS region structure")
+	log.Println("[INFO] Building AWS region structure")
 	region, err := p.Config.AWSRegion()
 	if err != nil {
 		errs = append(errs, err)
 	}
 
 	if len(errs) == 0 {
-		log.Println("Initializing EC2 connection")
+		log.Println("[INFO] Initializing EC2 connection")
 		p.ec2conn = ec2.New(auth, region)
-		log.Println("Initializing ELB connection")
+		log.Println("[INFO] Initializing ELB connection")
 		p.elbconn = elb.New(auth, region)
-		log.Println("Initializing AutoScaling connection")
+		log.Println("[INFO] Initializing AutoScaling connection")
 		p.autoscalingconn = autoscaling.New(auth, region)
 	}
 
diff --git a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider_test.go b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider_test.go
index 433e94b2e..fddcb3a39 100644
--- a/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider_test.go
+++ b/builtin/providers/aws/resource_provider_test.go
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package aws
 
 import (
+	"os"
+	"log"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -8,6 +10,16 @@ import (
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/terraform"
 )
 
+var testAccProviders map[string]terraform.ResourceProvider
+var testAccProvider *ResourceProvider
+
+func init() {
+	testAccProvider = new(ResourceProvider)
+	testAccProviders = map[string]terraform.ResourceProvider{
+		"aws": testAccProvider,
+	}
+}
+
 func TestResourceProvider_impl(t *testing.T) {
 	var _ terraform.ResourceProvider = new(ResourceProvider)
 }
@@ -41,3 +53,16 @@ func TestResourceProvider_Configure(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", rp.Config)
 	}
 }
+
+func testAccPreCheck(t *testing.T) {
+	if v := os.Getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY"); v == "" {
+		t.Fatal("AWS_ACCESS_KEY must be set for acceptance tests")
+	}
+	if v := os.Getenv("AWS_SECRET_KEY"); v == "" {
+		t.Fatal("AWS_SECRET_KEY must be set for acceptance tests")
+	}
+	if v := os.Getenv("AWS_REGION"); v == "" {
+		log.Println("[INFO] Test: Using us-west-2 as test region")
+		os.Setenv("AWS_REGION", "us-west-2")
+	}
+}