EXHIBIT 99.1

SIERRA PACIFIC RESOURCES FILES NEW COMPLAINT AT FERC SEEKING TO STOP ENRON FROM
OBTAINING 'UNLAWFUL TERMINATION PAYMENTS'

Monday October 6, 3:06 pm ET

NEVADA UTILITIES ASK FERC TO ASSERT EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION IN ENRON DISPUTE;
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL EXPECTED TO INTERVENE

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Electric utility units of Sierra Pacific
Resources (NYSE: SRP - News) today filed a complaint at the United States
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to prevent bankrupt Enron Power
Marketing, Inc. (Enron) from obtaining a final judgment -- pending FERC review
- -- involving more than $330 million from "unlawful termination payments."

Enron had been found by the FERC earlier this year to have unlawfully
manipulated the Western energy market, engaging in fraud, deception and other
actions that created power market prices that were unjust and unreasonable.
Prior and subsequent to the FERC ruling, numerous Enron employees pled guilty to
related criminal charges.

Today's filing is intended to address Enron's purported "early termination" of
power contracts with Sierra Pacific's Nevada utilities in a maneuver that would
provide a "windfall" by obtaining payment for electric power that Enron did not,
nor could not, provide. It describes the "great harm" that could be done to the
utilities as well as the citizens of Nevada should any money be paid to Enron --
pending appeals and FERC review -- while Enron enjoys the protection of its
bankruptcy.

The company said it expects that the Nevada Attorney General's office, through
its Bureau of Consumer Protection, will intervene on behalf of Nevada citizens,
joining the Nevada utilities in opposing Enron's actions.

Walter Higgins, chairman and CEO of Sierra Pacific Resources, said, "Enron's
latest maneuvers, seeking to reach out from bankruptcy and seriously damage our
Nevada utilities, would have profound effects on our state's citizens and the
reliable delivery of energy supplies that are at the heart of our economy.

"The issues presented in this FERC case are clear," Higgins added. "A company
like Enron that engaged in pervasive wrongdoing should not be permitted to
adroitly 'game' the legal system so it can benefit from its criminal and
regulatory misconduct."

The complaint filed today calls for the FERC to preserve the status quo while it
reviews the complaint and ultimately find that Enron's actions violated the
terms of tariff language and therefore is not entitled to "a penny for power not
delivered." The filing adds that in the unlikely event these terminations were
found lawful, it is not in the public interest to permit Enron to collect a
windfall under these circumstances.

    Summary of New FERC Complaint



*     Sierra Pacific Resources believes that Enron's violations of federal law,
      including the Federal Power Act, breached FERC's regulations and power
      tariffs governing the transactions. Under these circumstances, it would be
      grossly unfair to permit Enron to -- again -- line its pockets and claim
      yet another set of victims.

*     The new complaint asks FERC to (a) assert its jurisdiction over the issue
      of whether Enron may lawfully claim rights under the power deals to be
      paid for not providing power that it could not provide anyway, (b)
      preserve the status quo by preventing Enron from enforcing the tariffs in
      dispute while FERC reviews the matter; (c) find that the applicable rules
      do not permit the sort of maneuver to create a windfall that Enron has
      attempted, and (d) find that, even if hypothetically Enron is technically
      entitled to a payment, it is neither equitable nor in the public interest
      for the Nevada Companies to be required to pay Enron an additional $300
      million plus award.

*     The new complaint asks FERC to find that Enron failed to act "reasonably"
      as required by the tariffs when it purported to terminate the contracts.
      Enron acted unreasonably because it had sold its marketing business, had
      no means of performing the contract, and apparently had one and only one
      objective -- to use any pretext to get out of its contracts and get paid
      for doing nothing.

*     Sierra Pacific Resources will also demonstrate that the harm to the public
      at large and third parties, not just the harm to the utilities themselves,
      would be so substantial as to require FERC to prevent the payment to
      Enron.

*     The new complaint is consistent with recent FERC orders that underscore
      the very different roles and perspectives of bankruptcy courts and the
      Commission. As the Commission has made clear in the recent NRG case
      involving a very similar effort by a bankrupt power supplier to terminate
      contracts with a public utility (Connecticut Power & Light), FERC's
      broader mandate under the Federal Power Act to protect the public interest
      takes jurisdictional precedence over a bankruptcy court's limited
      perspective of debtor rights.

*     FERC has previously expressed the well-founded view that power suppliers
      cannot use the bankruptcy courts to "maneuver" around FERC's expertise and
      jurisdiction. Here, Enron has thus far succeeded in "jurisdictional
      manipulation," just as it previously was found to have been guilty of
      "market manipulation."



Headquartered in Nevada, Sierra Pacific Resources is a holding company whose
principal subsidiaries are Nevada Power Company, the electric utility for most
of 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 Company also distributes natural gas in the Reno-Sparks area of northern
Nevada. Other subsidiaries include the Tuscarora Gas Pipeline Company, which
owns 50 percent interest in an interstate natural gas transmission partnership
and several unregulated energy services companies.