Works for me:
:: export FOO=boo
:: python
Python 2.7.10 (default, Jul 30 2016, 18:31:42)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.34)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.getenv('FOO')
'boo'
>>>
My guess is that you either forgot to export the variable, or you spelled the variable wrong.