alt Hacker News> cost is the only metric that matters.
Negative externalities like pollution and climate change are not even priced in. Even if they were priced in, there are non-monetary factors that we could consider once in a while, but the conversation tends back to dollars.
Many countries have high fuel taxes that approximate pricing in the negative externalities.
Assuming you think price as a signal is the solution to dealing with those externalities, it doesn't matter what caused the price to be high.