diff --git a/cameo/api/__init__.py b/cameo/api/__init__.py
index 33531618a..e18a73002 100644
--- a/cameo/api/__init__.py
+++ b/cameo/api/__init__.py
@@ -19,17 +19,21 @@
 # logger.info('Initializing cameo advanced programming interface. Be patient this might take a while ...')
 
 import os
-import gzip
 import cPickle as pickle
 import cameo
 
-# with gzip.open(os.path.join(cameo._cameo_data_path, 'metanetx.pgz')) as f:
-#     _METANETX = pickle.load(f)
+import logging
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-with open(os.path.join(cameo._cameo_data_path, 'metanetx.pickle')) as f:
-    _METANETX = pickle.load(f)
+on_rtd = os.environ.get('READTHEDOCS', None) == 'True'
+if not on_rtd:
+    with open(os.path.join(cameo._cameo_data_path, 'metanetx.pickle')) as f:
+        _METANETX = pickle.load(f)
+else:
+    # Mock this for RTD
+    _METANETX = dict([(key, None) for key in ['chem_prop', 'universal_model', 'bigg2mnx', 'mnx2bigg']])
 
 from cameo.api.hosts import hosts
 from cameo.api.designer import design
 from cameo.api.products import products
-
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 6bae4e02f..7ab35be20 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def __getattr__(cls, name):
 
     MOCK_MODULES = ['numpy', 'numpy.random', 'matplotlib', 'pandas', 'scipy', 'scipy.sparse',
                     'scipy.io', 'scipy.stats', 'scipy.version', 'bokeh', 'bokeh.plotting', 'swiglpk',
-                    'glpk', 'gurobipy', 'gurobipy.GRB', 'cplex', 'mlabwrap', 'pp', 'libsbml']
+                    'glpk', 'gurobipy', 'gurobipy.GRB', 'cplex', 'mlabwrap', 'pp', 'libsbml', 'METANETX', '_METANETX']
     sys.modules.update((mod_name, Mock()) for mod_name in MOCK_MODULES)
 
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,