House Republicans raised the alarm Thursday over an 11th-hour ploy by the Obama administration to cancel oil and gas leases and shut down fracking on federal lands.

"The Obama administration has hijacked federal agencies tasked by law to facilitate responsible energy development instead to do the bidding of radical environmentalists and shut down production," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.

Bishop is responding to the second day in a row of announced energy lease cancellations by the Interior Department at in the Thompson Divide section of the White River National Forest in Colorado. The announcement follows a similar one in Montana with Devon Energy to cancel 15 leases over complaints that energy production encroached on tribal lands.

"Impairing contracts and unilaterally terminating leases will win applause from national environmental groups but it does nothing but further dissuade investment, jobs and growth for Western Colorado communities," Bishop added. "Despite the enormous energy potential in the Mancos Shale, the Obama administration has sacrificed public education, jobs and economic revitalization with this decision."

The Mancos Shale in Colorado is being drilled using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to produce oil and gas. Fracking is a drilling method that makes use of water and sand injected deep underground to release oil and natural gas. The drilling method has resulted in the nation becoming a global energy leader. The U.S. Geological Survey said in June that the Mancos Shale, which is located primarily in Colorado, has the second-largest oil and gas potential that the agency has ever surveyed.

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., joined Bishop in protesting the decision on Thursday, saying he firmly believes "that we can harness our land's energy potential without compromising Colorado's natural beauty," but cancelling the leases "is a continuation of this Administration's false assertions that energy development has to come at the expense of preservation, and it is another action in a pattern that we have seen to permanently withdraw federal land from future natural resource development."

Tipton said the action is "simply unacceptable," adding that it is an "imperative that we keep all energy resources as a viable option to fuel our economy in the years to come."