Six researchers have spent the last three years performing an assessment, and have determined that water is wet. I hate that researchers have to spend their time on this shit. Hey, here's an idea to test whether research is necessary: If you took all of the subsidies enjoyed by the fossil fuel industry, and gave them to renewables, what would change? Duh.
Why? Not only is it literally their job, to put numbers to what we may or may not know, and in the process generate what might be surprising answers and interesting new questions. More importantly though, so often there are things we take for granted as "common sense" that turn out to be wrong or at the very least, better data informs better policy decisions.I hate that researchers have to spend their time on this shit.
Their time should be spent on quantifying the magnitude of different efforts or plans; not on establishing the basic logic that subsidies give the recipients an anti-competitive bias over non-subsidized businesses. There are some things that are self-evident, and researchers time should be valued more highly.