Governor Dannel Malloy tapped Yale Law professor Dan Esty LAW ’86 Thursday to head up a new state agency overseeing environmental and energy policy, the Hartford Courant reported.

Esty, a former environmental policy adviser to President Barack Obama, will take the reins of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, a consolidation of the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Public Utility Control, sometime in the coming weeks.

“It is an honor to be asked to serve in this new role, to work with the governor on the consolidation that he has announced, and to insure that the people of Connecticut get lower-cost energy, a greater energy efficiency and really become leaders in the push toward a clean energy future,” Esty told reporters at a Thursday press conference in Hartford.

Esty is married to Law School researcher Elizabeth Esty LAW ’85, who served one term as a Democrat representing Cheshire in the state legislature but lost a re-election bid last November.