This writer has no grasp of unintended consequences. If the government sets up a ‘market’ which trades on things who’s only value is artificially set by the government, it has nothing to do with a free market. Anyone who imagines otherwise is deluding themselves.
Sure, some people would make mints on such a thing, but they would be trading tulips (see Dutch Tulip Crisis).
Global warming is a massive fraud, but even if it were not, these nonsensical carbon markets are a sop to sucker in free market people. Europe has one of these running. You might want to look into how it is doing (hint, not well).
It is a perversion of the idea of a free market.
A market is what people spontaneously form when they are free.
What the author is proposing is a market in which half the participants are there ONLY because the government puts a gun to their head.
Not only would what he advocates create a gigantic dead weight on the economy, he further muddles up the concept of markets in the population’s minds.
This proposal is bad, bad, and bad.