Republican lawmakers recently criticized President Barack Obama's insistence on revisiting a 2008 federal law that opened 2 million acres of land to possible production.

A recent Congressional hearing was held in Grand Junction, Colorado, by The Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. The hearing was titled "American Jobs and Energy Security: Domestic Oil Shale, the Status of Research, Regulation and Roadblocks."

Republican lawmakers Scott Tipton and Doug Lamborn claimed that Obama's decision to revisit the law was obstructing shale production, which was interfering with job creation, according to Platts.

Lamborn stated at the hearing that "instead of promoting American jobs and developing cutting edge clean technologies to utilize these resources and lead the way in global development of this resource, the Obama Administration has stonewalled its production, diverted resources that could be used for oil shale R&D, and continues to put up roadblocks for companies."

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the country has approximately 2 trillion oil-equivalent barrels of oil shale, according to a release from the Committee. The majority of these resources are located in the Green River formation in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.