diff --git a/warden_server/test_warden_server.py b/warden_server/test_warden_server.py
index 2efe5b51c40b04df9cdec812b6bdd2fe6a0acfbe..fddf0a0e7bcdd66e604e2979d6f51b29e176623b 100755
--- a/warden_server/test_warden_server.py
+++ b/warden_server/test_warden_server.py
@@ -539,16 +539,14 @@ class PostgreSQL:
                 conn.close()
 
     def _load_tags(self, cur):
-        with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), "tagmap_db.json"),
-                  encoding="utf8") as tagmapf:
+        with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), "tagmap_db.json")) as tagmapf:
             tagmap = json.load(tagmapf)
         for tag, num in tagmap.items():
             cur.execute(
                 "INSERT INTO tags(id, tag) VALUES (%s, %s)", (num, tag))
 
     def _load_cats(self, cur):
-        with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), "catmap_db.json"),
-                  encoding="utf8") as catmapf:
+        with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), "catmap_db.json")) as catmapf:
             catmap = json.load(catmapf)
         for cat_subcat, num in catmap.items():
             catsplit = cat_subcat.split(".", 1)
@@ -592,8 +590,7 @@ class PostgreSQL:
             conn = self.ppg.connect(user=self.user, password=self.password,
                                     dbname=self.dbname, host='localhost')
             cur = conn.cursor()
-            with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), 'warden_3.0_postgres.sql'),
-                      encoding="utf8") as script:
+            with open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), 'warden_3.0_postgres.sql')) as script:
                 statements = script.read()
             cur.execute(statements)