Dan Esty, 51, an energy adviser to Barack Obama's campaign and transition team, is a Yale professor of law and environment who is Malloy's point man on the environment and energy policy.He is the author of nine books, including a volume that marked him as an environmentalist attuned to economics, "Green to Gold, How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage." "Specifically, it is not an environmentalist telling businesses how to behave, but is a business perspective on bringing the environment into corporate strategy," one reviewer wrote of the book that Esty co-authored with a Yale colleague, Andrew Winston."I know this new department will be on the cutting edge of environmental law and strategy with Dan at the helm," Malloy said. Esty was reported as being on Obama's short list for possible administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, where he worked as a top aide to Administrator Wiliam Reilly during the administration of George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, but he said today that being overlooked for the post was fortuitous. "I can't tell you how pleased I am to be here today," Esty said after Malloy announced his appointment on Feb. 10, 2011. "Washington is so badly broken down. We're going to be able to do in Connecticut things that can be done as a pilot for the entire country." Malloy said Esty will be responsible for the enforcement of environmental laws and regulations, but he also will act as a high-level adviser on how to grow clean-energy jobs and to end Connecticut's unhappy status as the state with the most expensive electricity in the continental United States. "This governor has the vision of how to move forward on energy and the environment that I've been trying to sell for 20 years," Esty said. "I couldn't find a better plaform for my vision of how to address these issues."Esty is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale and holds faculty positions in the university's environment and law schools. He also serves as the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business & Environment at Yale. He has had an extensive consulting practice while at Yale, including advising Unilever and Coca-Cola. He also was involved in the centrist "no labels" movement to shape environmental policy. Esty is married to former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Cheshire, a candidate for Congress in 2011.