Ground strap .. to the hood??

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

So I've been wondering about this for a while.. my 87 16v has a factory
ground strap from the body to the hood. What could this be for?? I don't
have anything electrical on my hood.

The only two possible explanations I could come up with are:
1) the ground strap is for the heated washer nozzles that were available
   in the cold weather package and they screwed up at the factory and
   installed them on all cars not just the cold weather ones. I find this
   unlikely because why wouldn't they just run an extra wire to the
   heater?

2) it's there to protect you somehow in case a downed power line lands on
   your hood. that seems pointless because the hood is bolted to the body
   anyway, and if there's a layer of insulative paint on the hood anyway,
   I don't think a layer of paint on the bolts/brackets between the hood
   and body is going to prevent that kind of juice from getting through.

or

3) it has something to do with preventing static electricity buildup from
  cosmic pixie dust rubbing on the car at 120 mph, which could cause an
  arc and start a fire inside the engine compartment.

Anybody know what the real story is?

-Toby