Sierra Pacific Resources
Contact: Karl Walquist / Bob Sagan
Phone: (775)834-3891 / (775) 834-4834

For Immediate Release

Reno, Nev. - Sierra Pacific Resources'(NYSE: SRP) shareholders re-elected four members of the company's Board of Directors today at their annual meeting at the Reno Hilton. Shareholders also approved amendments to the stock incentive plan for executives, the stock plan for non-employee members of the Board of Directors and the employee stock purchase plan.

Re-elected to the Board of Directors were Edward P. Bliss, a consultant with the Scudder Kemper Investment Company; Mary Lee Coleman, president of Coleman Enterprises, a development company; Theodore J. Day, senior partner of Hale, Day, Gallagher Company, a Nevada-based business and real estate development firm; and Jerry E. Herbst, chief executive officer of Terrible Herbst, Inc., a chain of family owned service stations and related businesses. All four were elected to three-year terms expiring in 2003.

Sierra Pacific Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael R. Niggli reviewed the company's financial performance and explained how recent regulatory decisions and other factors have affected the value of the company's common stock. He described the operational savings achieved from the Sierra PacificÂ- Nevada Power Company merger, and outlined benefits of the company's planned acquisition of Oregon's Portland General Electric (PGE), which is expected to be completed by year-end.

"Despite the lawsuits we've had to file to protect shareholder value during the restructuring of our industry, we're getting closer to achieving our vision of becoming a premier transmission and distribution company in the West," Niggli said. He noted that Sierra Pacific will be the 15th largest electric utility in the nation in terms of customers following the PGE acquisition.

Prior to the shareholders'meeting, the Board of Directors approved a quarterly dividend on common stock of 25 cents per share, payable Aug. 1, 2000, to shareholders of record on July 14, 2000.

Headquartered in Reno, Nev., Sierra Pacific Resources is a holding company whose principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power, the electric utility for southern Nevada, and Sierra Pacific Power Co., the electric utility for most of northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California, and a natural gas and water distributor in the Reno - Sparks area. Other subsidiaries include the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Co., which owns 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas transmission partnership; Sierra Pacific Communications, a telecommunications company; and e·three, which markets commercial and industrial energy and business solutions.