The chief of staff at the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection will take over as commissioner when Dan Esty resigns the post Feb. 3, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Wednesday afternoon.
Robert Klee has served as Esty’s chief of staff since April 2011 and will be the second DEEP commissioner since Malloy expanded the Department of Environmental Protection to include energy strategy. Klee’s appointment to the post was confirmed Wednesday morning by Alex Kragie, the DEEP deputy chief of staff.
“Governor Malloy and Commissioner Esty have developed a forward-looking agenda for this agency that has made Connecticut a national leader in our approach to environmental and energy policy,” Klee said following his appointment. “I look forward to building upon their efforts and to implementing the many groundbreaking programs we have developed with the help of a dedicated DEEP staff, the legislature, the business community, and environmental and energy advocates.”
Like Esty, Klee takes over as DEEP commissioner with a Yale background. Klee received his master’s degree in environmental management, his law degree, and his Ph.D. in forestry and environmental studies from Yale.
“I’ve got a lot of Yalies,” Malloy said Monday when asked about the candidates to succeed Esty.
Klee came to DEEP as an appellate attorney from the New Haven office of law firm Wiggin and Dana, specializing in energy and environmental law.
Continuity of DEEP’s programming and mission since it added the energy strategy played a key role in the in-house appointment of Klee to commissioner, Kragie said.
Esty, who was vital in the development of the new department’s mission, submitted his resignation on Jan. 15, as his three-year leave of absence from Yale was coming to an end.
