Point Isabel ISD: No Tax Abatement for Texas LNG!
Texas LNG would be a methane gas facility proposed for construction at the Port of Brownsville, about a mile from the City of Port Isabel. If allowed to move forward, the Texas LNG facility would span about 625 acres and include two gas storage tanks, a fiery flare stack, a network of large pipelines, and tanker ships. LNG export terminals are fossil fuel development that would be damaging to a safe and healthy future not only for the environment, climate, and wildlife but also for our Rio Grande Valley community.
| TAKE ACTION – NO TAX BREAKS FOR LNG! Sign the petition to the PIISD School Board by March 2: https://bit.ly/stoplngtaxbreak Pack the PIISD School Board Meeting on March 2! Point Isabel ISD School Board is voting on a $160 million tax break for Texas LNG on March 2, 2026 at 5:30 PM at the Port Isabel Early College High School Lecture Hall (18001 HWY 100 – Port Isabel, TX). Laguna Madre Residents should attend the board meeting to make public comments opposed to the tax abatement and urge PIISD to vote No! |
- Texas LNG wants $160 million tax break. Texas LNG is requesting a tax abatement from the Point Isabel School District to avoid paying $160 million in school property taxes. All residents, property owners, businesses, and industries pay their fair share of taxes, and Texas LNG should do the same. It is both good business and basic fairness.
- The Laguna Madre communities oppose LNG. The City of Port Isabel, South Padre Island, and the Town of Laguna Vista have all passed resolutions opposing LNG. The Long Island Village community board and the Port Isabel Economic Development Corporation oppose LNG. The Laguna Madre Water District voted against providing any water to LNG operations. The Point Isabel ISD rejected a similar tax abatement application from Texas LNG in 2022. The City of Port Isabel opposes LNG tax abatements.
- Tax abatements are intended to attract industries to locate here. However, Texas LNG applied for federal permits to build at the Port of Brownsville years ago. The tax abatement would waste future school property tax revenue that our schools desperately need.
- Texas LNG would burden taxpayer-funded infrastructure. The construction of these massive facilities would mean hundreds of trucks damaging our public roads. The LNG facility will also need services from the local fire department, police department, and emergency management services. If an emergency were to occur at the LNG facility, such as the Freeport LNG terminal explosion, nearby communities in Port Isabel would be forced to evacuate.
- Texas LNG plans to bulldoze an Indigenous historic site called “Garcia Pasture,” which contains ancestral burial sites, villages, and artifacts that are sacred to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Garcia Pasture is also recognized by the National Park Service.
- Texas LNG would be one of the biggest polluters in the Rio Grande Valley region. The LNG projects would release cancer-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide, degrading the community’s respiratory health and exacerbating the inadequate access to health care.
- Texas LNG has already received a massive property tax abatement from Cameron County in 2024, which would allow it to avoid paying $26 million in taxes over a 10-year period. Texas LNG must not have any more tax breaks from an impoverished community.
- Under the county tax abatement, Texas LNG would get a $2.6 million tax break per year to create only 35 permanent jobs. Looking at the tax abatement agreement that Texas LNG has received from Cameron County, the company would avoid paying $2.6 million of taxes per year for about 35 permanent jobs for “regional hires.” The LNG company describes a “regional hire” as anyone who has lived within a 50-mile radius of the Texas LNG site at the Port of Brownsville for a minimum of 6 months, which is hardly a local hire.
- LNG storage tanks would tower over our community. It would be three times the height of the Port Isabel Lighthouse.
