[FORM OF PRESS RELEASE]

                       MIDAMERICAN ENERGY HOLDINGS COMPANY

                   MIDAMERICAN ENERGY HOLDINGS COMPANY RENEWS
                             SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS PLAN

         DES MOINES, IA, U.S.A. - September 14, 1999, MidAmerican Energy
Holdings Company (NYSE: MEC, PCX and London) announced today that its Board of
Directors has renewed the Company's shareholder rights plan designed to protect
its shareholders from unsolicited takeover proposals and require that
acquisition proposals are negotiated with the Company's Board.

         A new amended and restated plan was adopted in the normal course of
updating and extending the predecessor shareholder rights plan, which was
scheduled to expire on November 30, 1999, and not in response to any acquisition
proposal. The expiration date of the rights plan has been extended to September
14, 2009.

         The amended plan reflects prevailing shareholder rights plan terms. The
share ownership level which triggers the exercise of the rights and the flip-in
and flip-over features of the rights plan has been reduced to 15% and the
exercise price of the rights has been increased to $140 per right.

         MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa,
USA, has approximately 9,700 employees and is the largest publicly traded
company in Iowa. Through its retail utility subsidiaries, MidAmerican Energy in
the U.S. and Northern Electric in the U.K., the Company provides electric
service to 2.2 million customers and natural gas service to 1.2 million
customers worldwide. Through CalEnergy, the Company's independent power
production and non-regulated business subsidiaries, and MidAmerican Energy's
utility operations, MidAmerican manages and owns interests in approximately
8,300 net megawatts of diversified power generation facilities in operation,
construction and development. Information about MidAmerican and its three
principal subsidiary companies is available on the Internet at
www.midamerican.com.