diff --git a/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/BUILD.bazel b/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/BUILD.bazel
index f840cc3eb40f..10a3c741834a 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/BUILD.bazel
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ go_library(
     deps = [
         "//pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/commands",
         "//pkg/cmd/roachprod/cli",
-        "//pkg/roachprod",
         "@com_github_spf13_cobra//:cobra",
     ],
 )
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/handlers.go b/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/handlers.go
index f24d60a1257f..eeafc629efe0 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/handlers.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/handlers.go
@@ -11,20 +11,19 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/drtprod/cli/commands"
 	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/cmd/roachprod/cli"
-	"github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/pkg/roachprod"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
-// Initialize sets up the environment and initializes the command-line interface.
-func Initialize(ctx context.Context) {
+func init() {
 	// Set environment variables for the GCE project and DNS configurations.
 	_ = os.Setenv("ROACHPROD_DNS", "drt.crdb.io")
 	_ = os.Setenv("ROACHPROD_GCE_DNS_DOMAIN", "drt.crdb.io")
 	_ = os.Setenv("ROACHPROD_GCE_DNS_ZONE", "drt")
 	_ = os.Setenv("ROACHPROD_GCE_DEFAULT_PROJECT", "cockroach-drt")
-	// Initialize cloud providers for roachprod.
-	_ = roachprod.InitProviders()
+}
 
+// Initialize sets up the environment and initializes the command-line interface.
+func Initialize(ctx context.Context) {
 	// Disable command sorting in Cobra (command-line parser).
 	cobra.EnableCommandSorting = false
 
diff --git a/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/dns.go b/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/dns.go
index 02143699c132..796495c75398 100644
--- a/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/dns.go
+++ b/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/dns.go
@@ -35,6 +35,10 @@ const (
 )
 
 var (
+	dnsDefaultZone, dnsDefaultDomain, dnsDefaultManagedZone, dnsDefaultManagedDomain string
+)
+
+func initDNSDefault() {
 	dnsDefaultZone = config.EnvOrDefaultString(
 		"ROACHPROD_GCE_DNS_ZONE",
 		"roachprod",
@@ -56,7 +60,7 @@ var (
 		"ROACHPROD_GCE_DNS_MANAGED_DOMAIN",
 		"roachprod-managed.crdb.io",
 	)
-)
+}
 
 var ErrDNSOperation = fmt.Errorf("error during Google Cloud DNS operation")
 
diff --git a/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/gcloud.go b/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/gcloud.go
index 288baf64d628..92d1e9dbb992 100644
--- a/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/gcloud.go
+++ b/pkg/roachprod/vm/gce/gcloud.go
@@ -64,6 +64,12 @@ const (
 var providerInstance = &Provider{}
 
 var (
+	defaultDefaultProject, defaultMetadataProject, defaultDNSProject, defaultDefaultServiceAccount string
+	// projects for which a cron GC job exists.
+	projectsWithGC []string
+)
+
+func initGCEProjectDefaults() {
 	defaultDefaultProject = config.EnvOrDefaultString(
 		"ROACHPROD_GCE_DEFAULT_PROJECT", "cockroach-ephemeral",
 	)
@@ -80,7 +86,8 @@ var (
 		"ROACHPROD_GCE_DEFAULT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT",
 		"21965078311-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com",
 	)
-)
+	projectsWithGC = []string{defaultDefaultProject}
+}
 
 // DefaultProject returns the default GCE project. This is used to determine whether
 // certain features, such as DNS names are enabled.
@@ -93,9 +100,6 @@ func DefaultProject() string {
 	return defaultDefaultProject
 }
 
-// projects for which a cron GC job exists.
-var projectsWithGC = []string{defaultDefaultProject}
-
 // Denotes if this provider was successfully initialized.
 var initialized = false
 
@@ -107,6 +111,9 @@ var initialized = false
 // Note that, when roachprod is used as a binary, the defaults for
 // providerInstance properties initialized here can be overriden by flags.
 func Init() error {
+	initGCEProjectDefaults()
+	initDNSDefault()
+
 	providerInstance.Projects = []string{defaultDefaultProject}
 	projectFromEnv := os.Getenv("GCE_PROJECT")
 	if projectFromEnv != "" {