President Barack Obama's proposal to end tax breaks for oil and natural-gas companies could hurt the industry's operations in Northern Colorado.

Submitted to Congress earlier this month, Obama's fiscal 2013 budget seeks to repeal more than $4 billion in annual tax subsidies to oil, gas and other fossil fuel producers. At the same time, Obama's budget provides important incentives for renewable energy, including for the development of advanced vehicles, biofuels and electricity generation.

While it's unlikely the current Congress will approve the rollback of these credits, little of the president's proposal was sitting well with the oil and natural-gas companies.

Increasing the industry's tax burden as it faces record-low natural gas prices imperils jobs at a time of high unemployment, Encana spokesman Doug Hock said. Encana drills natural gas wells near Erie in the D.J. Basin.

"We need all the sources of energy," Hock said. "This is in a sense using the tax code to pit one source against another. It inhibits overall development of domestic energy."

The natural-gas industry provides nearly 138,000 direct and indirect jobs in Colorado, according to America's Natural Gas Alliance, an