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 Chinese EV manufacturer's subsidiary in the U.S. is halting work on its rural Mecosta County electric vehicle battery plant while its lawsuit in federal appeals court plays out. -
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson says a review of non-citizens voting in the recent election supports numerous studies that show it is an "extremely rare" problem in Michigan and the U.S. -
Hundreds of protests were held across the U.S. and in other countries outside Tesla dealerships on March 29th, 2025, at a global Takedown Tesla event, calling for a boycott of federal DOGE leader Elon Musk's company. -
Bill would take "intrusive" question about mental health treatment off doctors' license applicationsDoctors in Michigan would no longer be required to disclose if they'd been diagnosed with or treated for a mental health condition in order to get a license, under a state House bill. -
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says an order for a 2.8% increase in Consumers Energy electricity rates for customers could have been worse, but she's still unhappy given the utility's poor record of reliability. -
Hundreds of people protested the Trump administration with signs and banners at highway bridge overpasses in Ann Arbor, Port Huron, Flint, Hazel Park, and Plymouth on Friday, and hundreds more showed up to protest DOGE head and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at a Tesla dealership in Ann Arbor. -
A person returning from international travel may have exposed people to measles at a Rochester restaurant and a Rochester hospital in early March. -
Hundreds of union members, residents, and activists protested outside an EPA lab that tests vehicle emissions in Ann Arbor, to protest massive layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies by DOGE, plans by the EPA to roll back environmental regulations, and threats by the Trump administration against long-standing union protection for federal employees. -
United Methodist leaders, parishioners, car crash survivors, and advocates met with state legislators and rallied on the steps of the state Capitol building on Wednesday to urge restoration of long-term care benefits in Michigan's auto no-fault law. -
Federal legislation would compensate the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community for thousands of acres that were taken, without compensation, and transferred to the state of Michigan, between 1855 and 1932.
