fatal error in email encryption function

during the user registration flow, the application crashes when trying to access the email encryption password. i tracked it down to this line of code. the env variable is an empty dict, but i've confirmed that the environment variables are set, and the app.config dict is populated properly.

i think the issue is that env is imported before the environment is fully configured, and python caches the import so tor_weather.utilities.encryption:env is never populated.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/weather/.tor-weather-virtualenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask/app.py", line 1517, in full_dispatch_request
    rv = self.dispatch_request()
  File "/home/weather/.tor-weather-virtualenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask/app.py", line 1503, in dispatch_request
    return self.ensure_sync(self.view_functions[rule.endpoint])(**req.view_args)
  File "/home/weather/.tor-weather-virtualenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask_restx/api.py", line 405, in wrapper
    resp = resource(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/weather/.tor-weather-virtualenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask/views.py", line 84, in view
    return current_app.ensure_sync(self.dispatch_request)(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/weather/.tor-weather-virtualenv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/flask_restx/resource.py", line 46, in dispatch_request
    resp = meth(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/weather/tor-weather/tor_weather/resources/external_api_routes/register_user.py", line 32, in post
    return User().register(email, password)
  File "/home/weather/tor-weather/tor_weather/service/user.py", line 127, in register
    self._send_email_verification_code(email)
  File "/home/weather/tor-weather/tor_weather/service/user.py", line 77, in _send_email_verification_code
    verification_code = self._generate_email_verification_code(email)
  File "/home/weather/tor-weather/tor_weather/service/user.py", line 47, in _generate_email_verification_code
    email_verification_code = encrypt(email)
  File "/home/weather/tor-weather/tor_weather/utilities/encryption.py", line 11, in encrypt
    secret: str = env["EMAIL_ENCRYPT_PASS"]
KeyError: 'EMAIL_ENCRYPT_PASS'