diff --git a/binder/environment.yml b/binder/environment.yml
index 2bc59969..c59ef68d 100644
--- a/binder/environment.yml
+++ b/binder/environment.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ name: earthaccess
 channels:
   - conda-forge
 dependencies:
+  - boto3
   - python=3.9
   - xarray>=0.19
   - dask>=2022.1
diff --git a/earthaccess/__init__.py b/earthaccess/__init__.py
index 4977bf38..c8f859f1 100644
--- a/earthaccess/__init__.py
+++ b/earthaccess/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
     get_requests_https_session,
     get_s3_credentials,
     get_s3fs_session,
-    granule_query,
+    in_us_west_2,
     login,
     open,
     search_data,
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 __all__ = [
+    # api.py
     "login",
     "search_datasets",
     "search_data",
@@ -31,15 +32,20 @@
     "get_fsspec_https_session",
     "get_s3fs_session",
     "get_s3_credentials",
-    "granule_query",
+    "get_edl_token" "granule_query",
     "collection_query",
     "open",
     "download",
+    "auth_environ",
+    "in_us_west_2",
+    # search.py
     "DataGranules",
     "DataCollections",
+    # auth.py
     "Auth",
+    # store.py
     "Store",
-    "auth_environ",
+    # kerchunk
     "consolidate_metadata",
 ]
 
diff --git a/earthaccess/api.py b/earthaccess/api.py
index a7d35fb0..f93ad637 100644
--- a/earthaccess/api.py
+++ b/earthaccess/api.py
@@ -353,3 +353,19 @@ def auth_environ() -> Dict[str, str]:
             "`auth_environ()` requires you to first authenticate with `earthaccess.login()`"
         )
     return {"EARTHDATA_USERNAME": auth.username, "EARTHDATA_PASSWORD": auth.password}
+
+
+def in_us_west_2() -> str:
+    """Returns a message indicating if the user is in AWS region us-west-2
+
+    Returns:
+        str: string indicating if the user is in AWS region us-west-2
+    """
+    if earthaccess.__store__._running_in_us_west_2() is True:
+        return "You are running in AWS region 'us-west-2'"
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(
+            "Your instance is not running inside the"
+            " AWS us-west-2 region."
+            " You will not be able to directly access NASA Earthdata S3 buckets."
+        )
diff --git a/earthaccess/auth.py b/earthaccess/auth.py
index 2a820402..b8dd6657 100644
--- a/earthaccess/auth.py
+++ b/earthaccess/auth.py
@@ -76,6 +76,28 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.EDL_GENERATE_TOKENS_URL = "https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/api/users/token"
         self.EDL_REVOKE_TOKEN = "https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/api/users/revoke_token"
 
+    def __repr__(self) -> str:
+        print_str = "Authentication Info\n" + "-------------------\n"
+        for k, v in self.auth_info.items():
+            print_str += str("{}: {}\n".format(k, v))
+
+        return print_str
+
+    @property
+    def auth_info(self) -> Dict:
+        """Get information about the authentication session
+
+        Returns:
+            Dict: information about the auth object
+        """
+        summary_dict: Dict[str, Any]
+        summary_dict = {
+            "authenticated?": self.authenticated,
+            "tokens": self.tokens,
+        }
+
+        return summary_dict
+
     def login(self, strategy: str = "netrc", persist: bool = False) -> Any:
         """Authenticate with Earthdata login.
 
@@ -168,6 +190,7 @@ def get_s3_credentials(
             provider: A valid cloud provider. Each DAAC has a provider code for their cloud distributions.
             endpoint: Getting the credentials directly from the S3Credentials URL.
 
+
         Returns:
             A Python dictionary with the temporary AWS S3 credentials.
         """
diff --git a/earthaccess/store.py b/earthaccess/store.py
index 15ae4ef2..f17f29ef 100644
--- a/earthaccess/store.py
+++ b/earthaccess/store.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Mapping, Optional, Tuple, Union
 from uuid import uuid4
 
+import botocore.session
 import fsspec
 import requests
 import s3fs
@@ -137,26 +138,10 @@ def _own_s3_credentials(self, links: List[Dict[str, Any]]) -> Union[str, None]:
         return None
 
     def _running_in_us_west_2(self) -> bool:
-        session = self.auth.get_session()
-        try:
-            # https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instancedata-data-retrieval.html
-            token_ = session.put(
-                "http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token",
-                headers={"X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds": "21600"},
-                timeout=1,
-            )
-            resp = session.get(
-                "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region",
-                timeout=1,
-                headers={"X-aws-ec2-metadata-token": token_.text},
-            )
-        except Exception:
-            return False
-
-        if resp.status_code == 200 and b"us-west-2" == resp.content:
-            # On AWS, in region us-west-2
+        if botocore.session.get_session().get_config_variable("region") == "us-west-2":
             return True
-        return False
+        else:
+            return False
 
     def set_requests_session(
         self, url: str, method: str = "get", bearer_token: bool = False