My impression based on limited information is that many of the areas were so overloaded with dry dead vegetation that who sparked the otherwise inevitable fire should be irrelevant. The state forcing liability like it is amounts to nothing but a back-door tax propping up areas which should be uninhabited because of the risk.

>>State regulators point out that overall, only about 10 percent or less of the state’s wildfires are triggered by power line issues. But they acknowledge the state’s 176,000-mile system of overhead electrified lines has played a role in igniting some of the biggest and most destructive fires in recent years. https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article221707650.html

So fires will happen. But also with 176,000 MILES of wires through all kinds of terrain, there's a limit on how much they can do. Summertime those forests almost don't even need a spark to light up, it's so dry and full of combustible material. And then, a tree from 45 yards away falls on the wires...

My full angle is just that outsourcing of IT for a utility company seems, at best, two steps removed from anything of relevance.

PG&E outsourced something like 70 jobs from their IT department. They laid off under 2% of their workforce.

You have engage in all kinds of "this is a symptom of" third-degree effects stuff. But if you want to just say "they have bad management" why talk about outsourcing of an IT team instead of....their actual core business?

You know who else outsources? Apple & Google. (Apple spends $100 million a year on Indian outsourced IT, for instance) According to the OP's thesis we should expect Apple & Google to shutdown soon.

No one believes that because, really, none of us believe the OP's thesis that outsourcing a tiny fraction of your workforce is a sign of anything material.

Some of the recent fires were thought to be caused by PGE negligence. Once brought under control and investigated, it turned out to be your very standard sparks-on-the-road and dry bush fire, just grown to epic proportions. Nevertheless some maintenance issues were found in PGE’s service record and they are still being held accountable by the state, for a fire they didn’t cause. Right criminal, wrong crime.

I’m not a fan of PGE, and I’m personally very happy their filing for bankruptcy, but there does appear to be some political grandstanding and scapegoating here.

You might want to read the article, its well written and addresses that point.