diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/regenerate_user.py b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/regenerate_user.py
index 55f0cc1850..c2b8898498 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/regenerate_user.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/regenerate_user.py
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
                     dest='noop',
                     default=False,
                     help="Don't grade or add certificate requests to the queue"),
+        make_option('--insecure',
+                    action='store_true',
+                    dest='insecure',
+                    default=False,
+                    help="Don't use https for the callback url to the LMS, useful in http test environments"),
         make_option('-c', '--course',
                     metavar='COURSE_ID',
                     dest='course',
@@ -52,6 +57,8 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
         if not options['noop']:
             # Add the certificate request to the queue
             xq = XQueueCertInterface()
+            if options['insecure']:
+                xq.use_https = False
             ret = xq.regen_cert(student, course_id, course=course)
             print '{0} - {1}'.format(student, ret)
         else:
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/ungenerated_certs.py b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/ungenerated_certs.py
index 14895385d6..5fb9c53718 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/ungenerated_certs.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/management/commands/ungenerated_certs.py
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
                     dest='noop',
                     default=False,
                     help="Don't add certificate requests to the queue"),
+        make_option('--insecure',
+                    action='store_true',
+                    dest='insecure',
+                    default=False,
+                    help="Don't use https for the callback url to the LMS, useful in http test environments"),
         make_option('-c', '--course',
                     metavar='COURSE_ID',
                     dest='course',
@@ -83,6 +88,8 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
                     "groups").order_by('username')
 
             xq = XQueueCertInterface()
+            if options['insecure']:
+                xq.use_https = False
             total = enrolled_students.count()
             count = 0
             start = datetime.datetime.now(UTC)
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/queue.py b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/queue.py
index 570067c294..5f63bbf1e2 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/queue.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/queue.py
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ class XQueueCertInterface(object):
                 )
         self.whitelist = CertificateWhitelist.objects.all()
         self.restricted = UserProfile.objects.filter(allow_certificate=False)
+        self.use_https = True
 
     def regen_cert(self, student, course_id, course=None):
         """(Re-)Make certificate for a particular student in a particular course
@@ -216,9 +217,14 @@ class XQueueCertInterface(object):
 
     def _send_to_xqueue(self, contents, key):
 
+        if self.use_https:
+            proto = "https"
+        else:
+            proto = "http"
+
         xheader = make_xheader(
-            'https://{0}/update_certificate?{1}'.format(
-                settings.SITE_NAME, key), key, settings.CERT_QUEUE)
+            '{0}://{1}/update_certificate?{2}'.format(
+                proto, settings.SITE_NAME, key), key, settings.CERT_QUEUE)
 
         (error, msg) = self.xqueue_interface.send_to_queue(
                 header=xheader, body=json.dumps(contents))