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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A Michigan initiative is testing drones to make deliveries in key industries over short and medium distances. One day, the technology might transport people as well. -
A Michigan agency is offering low-interest loans to accelerate the building of multi-family rental projects that include apartments considered affordable. -
The Department of Energy extended its 90-day order another 90 days to require Consumers Energy to keep an aging coal-burning power plant running, despite state's assessment it's not needed. -
A Republican student club sued Ann Arbor Public Schools, alleging the district discriminated against it by not allowing it to make a political announcement on a high school PA system. -
Consumers Energy is running an aging coal-burning electric power plant near Lake Michigan past its scheduled closing date at the order of the Trump administration.
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Michigan K-12 students are supposed to get a minimum of 180 days of classroom instruction, but Superintendent Michael Rice says in reality, it's nowhere near that. -
Multiple complaints by customers accuse CURE Auto Insurance of bait and switch policies to avoid paying their claims. A leading auto insurance attorney says what CURE is doing is against state law. -
A report by Grid Strategies says electric rates would rise at least $3 billion if the Trump administration orders U.S. coal burning plants slated for retirement to remain running.
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State Superintendent Michael Rice says it's "unacceptable" that the state House and state Senate have failed to agree on a school aid budget. -
The cost of car insurance in Michigan is higher than ever, and increasing, six years after Govenor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bipartisan 2019 auto no fault bill into law that was supposed to lower costs. A consumer group says a big part of the reason is insurance companies are squeezing more profit out of customers.
