Seattle-based Imperium Renewables has agreed to purchase a large amount of canola oil from Earth-firendly Natural Selection Farms to make biodiesel. The deal will produce one million gallons of biodiesel a year and is, in fact, the largest sale of Washington state-produced canola oil ever. From this Businesswire.com story:

“This partnership demonstrates the incredible opportunity for our state’s agricultural industry to benefit from the increasing demand for biodiesel within the state as well as nationally,” said John Plaza, Imperium’s Founder and President. “We’ve always said that we’d be the state’s biggest customer for Washington State produced canola oil, and today we are. This is just the beginning of what we hope will further establish a new market for Washington State farmers as well as Washington State consumers of the fuel.”

“Diversifying our crop base to include canola makes both great agricultural and business sense,” said Ted Durfey, owner of Natural Selection Farms. “We’re proud to be doing our part to clean up the air, increase jobs and revenue in our state and reduce our nation’s dependency on foreign oil. I hope others will realize the benefits of adding canola to their crop mix.”

Imperium is already the biggest producer of biodiesel on the West Coast, and when a new Imperium Grays Harbor facility comes on line in mid-2007, it will be the largest biodiesel facility in the country… making 100 million gallons a year.