House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who has criticized the administration for its failed loan guarantee to the firm Solyndra, urged the Energy Department to approve funding assistance for a Michigan solar company that said last week it is halting operations.

Upton and 13 other Michigan lawmakers sent a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in December 2009 recommending Auburn Hills-based United Solar Ovonics for a loan under President Obama's economic stimulus bill.

The loan was never approved by the Energy Department, but Upton's advocacy for United Solar stands in contrast to his recent skepticism about the government's clean-energy loan guarantee program.

"It is not the role of government to pick winners and losers," Upton said in a statement in September regarding Solyndra. "Let's learn the lessons of Solyndra before another dollar goes out the door."

In 2009, Upton had also signed letters asking the Energy Department to provide financial assistance to automakers, a wind turbine maker, a biofuels refinery, a smart-grid project, a battery company and a water wave energy firm.