dotenv not working after transcompile with Babel - babeljs

Question

I have code reading .env using dotenv that is working in dev but after transcompiling with Babel the values from process.env are undefined. I created a sample program to illustrate the problem which is below.
If I'm in projectRoot and run
npm run start-w
then
console.log(process.env.VAR1)
prints the value 'var1Val'
However, if I do
npm run build
cd dist
node index.js
the value of VAR1 is 'undefined'.
index.js
import 'dotenv/config'
console.log('VAR1', process.env.VAR1)
.env
VAR1=var1val
VAR2=var2val
VAR3=var3val
.babelrc
{
"presets": ["#babel/preset-env"],
"plugins": [
"#babel/plugin-transform-runtime",
]
}
package.json
{
"name": "dotenv.node-babel",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "",
"main": "index.js",
"dependencies": {
"#babel/runtime": "^7.4.3",
"dotenv": "^7.0.0"
},
"devDependencies": {
"#babel/cli": "^7.4.3",
"#babel/core": "^7.4.3",
"#babel/node": "^7.2.2",
"#babel/plugin-transform-runtime": "^7.4.3",
"#babel/preset-env": "^7.4.3",
"#types/dotenv": "^6.1.1",
"nodemon": "^1.18.11",
"rimraf": "^2.6.3"
},
"scripts": {
"clean-dist": "rimraf dist",
"build": "npm run-script clean-dist && babel . -d dist --ignore node_modules",
"start": "babel-node index.js",
"start-w": "NODE_ENV=devLocal nodemon --exec babel-node index.js"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC"
}

Answer 1

If you do not have a .env file in your build directory, try creating one. I guess that's why the environment variable is undefined.