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They could afford to pay out a regular dividend, illegally skipped safety measures on pipelines, and “an independent audit from the State of California issued a report stating that PG&E had illegally diverted over $100 million from a fund used for safety operations, and instead used it for executive compensation and bonuses”. Ratepayers and taxpayers should never have to pay for deliberate executive negligence.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pge-safety-investigat...

Hold on they were not allowed to do secondary offerings? Or debt raise? Have you seen the stock price of PCG? Share price trend does not resemble a company with financial troubles.

PG&E had more than enough money to bury its power lines, and used that money to fund dividends and executive bonuses instead.