New incentives encouraging clean hydrogen production in the U.S. have put energy developers on the lookout for demand opportunities, industry watchers said at a Sept. 20 panel discussion.

The conversation, held during Climate Week NYC, comes as the Inflation Reduction Act is poised to make green hydrogen economic for the first time in the U.S.

“To help the economics of a transaction, there needs to be a transaction,” said Alan Alexander, partner at Vinson & Elkins. “It’s time for policymakers, dealmakers, all of the above — now that we can source this in a cost-competitive way — to begin to think about ways to use it.”