Sierra Pacific Resources
Contact: Karl Walquist
Phone: (775)834-3891

For Immediate Release

Reno, Nev. -- Plans to expand the interstate gas pipeline owned by the Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company were approved today by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The project consists of three compressor stations and a 14- mile pipeline extension from the current terminus of the Tuscarora pipeline east of Reno, Nev., to Wadsworth, Nev. At Wadsworth, the pipeline will be interconnected with another interstate gas pipeline. (Compressor stations are natural gas-powered engines that increase the pressure of the natural gas stream flowing through the station, thereby increasing the volume of gas that can be transported on the system.)

The transmission company is owned by the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP), TC PipeLines (Nasdaq: TCLPZ) and TCPL Tuscarora, Ltd.

The project will nearly double the pipeline's capacity and improve the reliability of the natural gas transmission systems that serve northern Nevada, according to Greg Galbraith, general manager of Tuscarora. Final permitting for the project is pending before the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other state and local agencies.

The expansion project is expected to cost approximately $60 million and will increase Tuscarora's capacity from 127 million cubic feet per day to 220 million cubic feet per day, Galbraith said. Commercial operations are targeted to begin in November 2002, with approximately 40 percent of the expansion volumes flowing. The full incremental 93 million cubic feet per day of contracted volumes are expected to be flowing by late 2003 when construction is completed.

The Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company owns a 229-mile interstate pipeline that transports natural gas from the Oregon-California border to northern Nevada. In Malin, Ore., the pipeline interconnects with the facilities of PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest, which has access to gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, one of the largest natural gas reserve basins in North America.

The Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company holds a 50 percent interest in the Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company. Tuscarora Gas Pipeline's parent company, Sierra Pacific Resources, is a Nevada-based holding company whose principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power Company, the electric utility for Las Vegas and southern Nevada, and Sierra Pacific Power Company, the electric utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California. Sierra Pacific Power also distributes natural gas in the Reno-Sparks area.

TC PipeLines, LP is a publicly held limited partnership. It owns a 30 percent interest in Northern Border Pipeline Company, a Texas general partnership, and a 49 percent interest in Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company, a Nevada general partnership.

Northern Border Pipeline owns a 1,249-mile United States interstate pipeline system that transports natural gas from the Montana-Saskatchewan border to markets in the midwestern United States. TCPL Tuscarora, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada Pipelines, Ltd., headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, holds a one percent interest in the Tuscarora Gas Transmission Company.