diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
index 301b571f6db3a..42bed5e2db0ae 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/SparkHadoopUtil.scala
@@ -64,28 +64,37 @@ class SparkHadoopUtil extends Logging {
     }
   }
 
+  @Deprecated
+  def newConfiguration(): Configuration = newConfiguration(null)
+
   /**
    * Return an appropriate (subclass) of Configuration. Creating config can initializes some Hadoop
    * subsystems.
    */
   def newConfiguration(conf: SparkConf): Configuration = {
     val hadoopConf = new Configuration()
-    // Explicitly check for S3 environment variables
-    if (System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID") != null &&
-        System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY") != null) {
-      hadoopConf.set("fs.s3.awsAccessKeyId", System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"))
-      hadoopConf.set("fs.s3n.awsAccessKeyId", System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"))
-      hadoopConf.set("fs.s3.awsSecretAccessKey", System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"))
-      hadoopConf.set("fs.s3n.awsSecretAccessKey", System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"))
-    }
-    // Copy any "spark.hadoop.foo=bar" system properties into conf as "foo=bar"
-    conf.getAll.foreach { case (key, value) =>
-      if (key.startsWith("spark.hadoop.")) {
-        hadoopConf.set(key.substring("spark.hadoop.".length), value)
+
+    // Note: this null check is around more than just access to the "conf" object to maintain
+    // the behavior of the old implementation of this code, for backwards compatibility.
+    if (conf != null) {
+      // Explicitly check for S3 environment variables
+      if (System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID") != null &&
+          System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY") != null) {
+        hadoopConf.set("fs.s3.awsAccessKeyId", System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"))
+        hadoopConf.set("fs.s3n.awsAccessKeyId", System.getenv("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"))
+        hadoopConf.set("fs.s3.awsSecretAccessKey", System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"))
+        hadoopConf.set("fs.s3n.awsSecretAccessKey", System.getenv("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"))
       }
+      // Copy any "spark.hadoop.foo=bar" system properties into conf as "foo=bar"
+      conf.getAll.foreach { case (key, value) =>
+        if (key.startsWith("spark.hadoop.")) {
+          hadoopConf.set(key.substring("spark.hadoop.".length), value)
+        }
+      }
+      val bufferSize = conf.get("spark.buffer.size", "65536")
+      hadoopConf.set("io.file.buffer.size", bufferSize)
     }
-    val bufferSize = conf.get("spark.buffer.size", "65536")
-    hadoopConf.set("io.file.buffer.size", bufferSize)
+
     hadoopConf
   }
 
diff --git a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkHdfsLR.scala b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkHdfsLR.scala
index 1d811f8225ba0..3258510894372 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkHdfsLR.scala
+++ b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkHdfsLR.scala
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ import java.util.Random
 import scala.math.exp
 
 import breeze.linalg.{Vector, DenseVector}
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 
 import org.apache.spark._
-import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkHadoopUtil
 import org.apache.spark.scheduler.InputFormatInfo
 
 
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ object SparkHdfsLR {
 
     val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setAppName("SparkHdfsLR")
     val inputPath = args(0)
-    val conf = SparkHadoopUtil.get.newConfiguration(sparkConf)
+    val conf = new Configuration()
     val sc = new SparkContext(sparkConf,
       InputFormatInfo.computePreferredLocations(
         Seq(new InputFormatInfo(conf, classOf[org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat], inputPath))
diff --git a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkTachyonHdfsLR.scala b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkTachyonHdfsLR.scala
index 48e8459eb1afd..96d13612e46dd 100644
--- a/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkTachyonHdfsLR.scala
+++ b/examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/SparkTachyonHdfsLR.scala
@@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ import java.util.Random
 import scala.math.exp
 
 import breeze.linalg.{Vector, DenseVector}
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
 
 import org.apache.spark._
-import org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkHadoopUtil
 import org.apache.spark.scheduler.InputFormatInfo
 import org.apache.spark.storage.StorageLevel
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ object SparkTachyonHdfsLR {
   def main(args: Array[String]) {
     val inputPath = args(0)
     val sparkConf = new SparkConf().setAppName("SparkTachyonHdfsLR")
-    val conf = SparkHadoopUtil.get.newConfiguration(sparkConf)
+    val conf = new Configuration()
     val sc = new SparkContext(sparkConf,
       InputFormatInfo.computePreferredLocations(
         Seq(new InputFormatInfo(conf, classOf[org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat], inputPath))