PORTLAND — Leaders of Oregon’s first commercial biodiesel manufacturing plant said plans are in place to start production in November.

SeQuential-Pacific — controlled by SeQuential Biofuels of Portland and Pacific Biodiesel of Kahului, Hawaii — said it has purchased an acre of industrial land in North Portland.

Tomas Endicott, managing partner of SeQuential Biofuels, said the plant would be capable of producing about 1 million gallons per year of biodiesel, made from cooking oil and usable as fuel in diesel engines.

The news comes as some Oregon legislators are seeking to jump-start biodiesel production in the state, saying it can create jobs and help the environment.

"We want biodiesel to be a cluster industry in the state," said state Rep. Jackie Dingfelder, D-Portland.

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Legislation authorizing tax breaks to biodiesel manufacturers cleared the Senate in March, but is stalled in the House, Dingfelder said.

Endicott said funding for the plant comes from Wells Fargo Bank and the Oregon Department of Energy. He said minority investors include country music singer Willie Nelson; Cameron Healy, founder of Kettle Foods; John Miller, an Oregon businessman; and Ron Tyree, owner of Tyree Oil, a Eugene-based petroleum distributor.

There are 32 biodiesel manufacturing plants in the United States and 24 more in the planning stage, said Amber Thurlow-Pearson of the National Biodiesel Board.

She said about 30 million gallons of biodiesel were produced in the country last year, a small fraction of the 55 billion to 60 billion gallons of traditional diesel fuel used in the country in 2004.

Still, advocates called the new facility an important early step for biodiesel in Oregon.

"Biodiesel is the perfect fuel, when you think about it," said Brian Jamison, board president of the GoBiodiesel cooperative of Portland. "The only thing we need to do is increase production and get the word out."