For example one could see a difference in a particular ERV shared between dogs and wolves that is X% different - and that X% difference is assumed to cover the time that dogs have diverged from wolves. The X doesn't change, it is a measured amount (for those particular sequences).
What the research is attempting to change is the amount of TIME that it would take for an X% difference to form; they say that X% that would be 20,000 years should be 40,000 to 60,000 years.
That means that the RATE of change is one half to one third as rapid as previously expected; not twice or three times as fast - as is also maintained, despite the inherent contradiction.
As I said, somewhere between the actual science and the publication of this in the school paper; someone got confused.
Not the amount of change but the number of changes.