Sierra Pacific Resources
Contact: Karl Walquist/Robert Sagan
Phone: (775)834-4345

For Immediate Release

Sierra Pacific Resources (NYSE: SRP) shareholders, meeting in Reno on May 20 at their annual meeting, re-elected four members of their board of directors.

Re-elected were: Krestine M. Corbin, Harold P. Dayton, James R. Donnelley and Dennis E. Wheeler. They will serve three-year terms ending in 1999, or until the closing date of the pending merger between Sierra Pacific Resources and the Washingon Water Power Company (NYSE: WWP), whichever occurs first.

The Sierra Pacific Resources Board also approved a quarterly dividend on common stock of 29 1/2 cents per share, payable Aug. 1, 1996, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 17, 1996.

Sierra Pacific Resources is the holding company for Sierra Pacific Power Co., a combined electric, natural gas and water utility; Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company, which owns 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas pipeline company; and Lands of Sierra, Inc., a real estate management company with holdings in Nevada and California.