The real problem is the climate, the fuel, and structure hardening. In some big fires, it was power lines, but in others it was a cigarette or arson, or a camp fire, or lightning, or a car parked on dry grass, or people using power tools that made a spark.

Trying to pin down liability just based on the ignition source just makes a deep pockets lottery. If the power company lights a massive fire, you get a payout. If someone throws a cigarette out their window, they go bankrupt and you get nothing.

Eventually if you have a dry forest with a lot of dry brush and you have enough hot windy days, it's going to catch on fire. If the power lines are perfect, maybe you'll delay it a few years, but the same thing is going to happen. Either you deal with the problem from a fuel standpoint, or you make peoples' houses harder to burn, or you're going to end up with a bunch of burned down houses. There really isn't some magical solution where you can just blame it all on PG&E.