Would these fires really not have started without PG&E as the most proximate source? The Mendocino Fire Complex, the largest in CA history, was sparked by lightning. Another fire was started by someone sparking it by hitting a metal spike trying to seal a wasp nest. If it wasn't PG&E, it surely would have been something else. The forest was/is a tinder keg waiting for a spark of any sort.

The elephant in the room is having huge swaths of the state requiring nothing more than a spark to go cataclysmic. Lightning strikes, failing catalytic converters w/side exit tailpipes spewing hot sparks, careless campers, arson, there's an endless list of sources for that spark.

It strikes me as ridiculous PG&E takes so much blame, if there were no power lines California would still be burning.

A combination of increasing electricity consumption per capita combined with a lack of investment is a perfect storm for wildfires.