This article describes the federal and state incentives and tax credits for businesses in Maine that add rooftop solar, electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, charging stations, or upgrade the energy efficiency of their buildings.
Students will learn that businesses can receive financial incentives in Maine if they utilize these technologies.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article is concise and easy to understand.
This article provides useful links for the tax forms and for more Maine-specific information.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should know what electric vehicles are, how they work, and why they can lower emissions and air pollution.
If you left-click the links you won't be taken to a new tab.
Differentiation
This article could enhance a lesson where students discuss other methods for increasing the adoption of renewable technologies.
After reading the article, the teacher could lead a classroom discussion about which industries cause the most environmental damage and how to transition those industries to less polluting methods.
This article could support a classroom discussion comparing incentives and regulations to see if one or both are needed to transition entire sectors to new ways of operating.
This article could augment a lesson on renewable energy vs. nonrenewable energy, highlighting the support required to transition from one system to another.
Scientist Notes
This resource highlights how government incentives could help to accelerate clean technologies and scale climate-friendly business to address climate change in Maine. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.1.9-12 Analyze how incentives influence choices that may result in policies with a range of costs and benefits for different groups.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.10 By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
