Rate payers will pay for PG&E and State mismanagement.
There is no alternative.
There are 3 things needed for a fire. Oxygen, fuel and heat/spark. If you don’t handle fuel and/or heat/spark then you get fire because oxygen is (thankfully) not going away. If the state will not let you remove fuel around power lines to reduce risk the government bears a portion of the responsibility for the resultant fire. This is basic logic, which California legislators and regulators have in short supply.
The alternative is for PG&E to go Chapter 7 and auction off the assets to a private company with the money going to the bondholders. It won’t leave anything for the state, but that’s life when a company is so badly managed.
Shareholders are going to get the short end, but they can hardly complain they didn’t see this coming, with or without the fires.