Charging for an scarce resource instead of letting the tragedy of the commons play out does sound like something obvious to come out of a neoliberal economist yes.
The Economist has long been pretty outspoken over their preference for a carbon tax over cap-and-trade (see any article they write about carbon emissions).
Just like the ACA/Obamacare was very similar to a proposal that came out of the Heritage Foundation, but was universally hated by the people on that side.
