Tracy Samilton
Energy and Transportation Reporter / ProducerTracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Public as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.
She took over the auto beat in January, 2009, just a few months before Chrysler and General Motors filed for bankruptcy.
Tracy’s reports can frequently be heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as on Michigan Public.
Her coverage of Michigan’s Detroit Three automakers has taken her as far as Germany, and China. Tracy graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in English Literature.
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DTE Energy customers will pay a little more than 4.5% percent more for electricity, beginning in March. The Michigan Public Service Commission is defending the rate hike in part due to the utility's recent improvements in reliability. -
Stellantis has told the owners of about 225,000 older Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, and Jeep vehicles not to drive them until the Takata airbags have been replaced. It's a continuation of the largest automotive recall in U.S. history. -
Gotion, a Chinese-owned advanced battery manufacturing company, says it won't pay back a $23.7 million grant from the state of Michigan, after its project to build a massive EV battery plant in Mecosta County failed. -
Michigan AG keeps pressure on MPSC over its approval of proposed massive Saline Township data centerMichigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed a motion with the Michigan Public Service Commission, asking the agency to open a contested case of DTE Energy's "conditionally approved" contract with a proposed massive AI data center in Saline Township. -
Hundreds of people, chanting "Ice out now," marched in Ann Arbor Friday as part of a general strike to protest violent actions by federal agents in Minneapolis. -
Democratic State Senator Sam Singh has introduced a bill that would require the establishment of a statewide sanitary code for septic systems. Many similar bills have failed to win support in the state legislature over the decades. -
Ann Arbor for Public Power says it wants a city-owned electric utility, because it says DTE Energy is too expensive, too unreliable, and too dependent on fossil fuels. -
Ottawa County hopes to encourage local governments to change zoning regulations, so developers can build smaller, more affordable homes. -
General Motors has settled a case filed by the FTC, after a New York Times investigation found the automaker was selling driver behavior data to third parties without customers' consent. -
The cities of Farmington Hills, Farmington, and Southfield will hire sharpshooters to kill several hundred deer in a cull this month, as ecosystem damage and the number of deer-car collisions rise.
