Residents have long worried about plans for Southwest light rail to operate alongside freight trains hauling ethanol, especially in densely populated areas such as Minneapolis.

Gov. Kate Brown again called for a moratorium on oil trains in Oregon, after federal regulators released findings June 23 that blamed this month's fiery derailment and spill in the Columbia River Gorge on Union Pacific's failure to maintain its tracks.

Oregon has asked the Federal Railroad Administration to place an open-ended moratorium on oil trains traveling through the state, because preliminary findings of an investigation into the June 3 derailment in Mosier suggest inspectors might not be able to detect the problem that likely caused the crash.

Hundreds of things could go wrong with the thousands of locomotives pulling millions of tons of cargo across the country every day. So the Port of Vancouver maintains its 38 miles of track at a higher-than-needed level to keep accidents to a minimum.

While 2015 will go down as the worst year for crude train disasters, it also is shaping up to be the year crude-by-rail hit the brakes.

The Federal Railroad Administration is soliciting applications for $10 million in competitive grants available to states to improve highway-rail grade crossings and track along routes that transport energy products such as crude oil and ethanol.