CT, I noticed that as well. I just didn't worry much about it because
a) the press all to often makes a mess of things; and,
b) PoCo stuff is a world onto itself.
That aside, even ground wires (as we know the term) (more correctly, the GEC, or grounding electrode conductor) is almost always carrying current, even if it is seemingly at zero potential to ground. Cut it, and you will then have a voltage potential between the two halves.
A customer of mine had a meter can come apart when the PoCo wanted to pull the meter. Since electricity takes ALL paths, ther were several points where arcing resulted, between various pipes and conduits. Some of these arcs were just inches from the ground, between conduits that entered the ground.
