Are groovy variables null-initialized, or is this an IntelliJ bug?

Question

IntelliJ highlights the 'foo' variable in gray, and says "assignment is not used". What I want to know is - it is right or not...

If this were java and not groovy, I know it wouldn't be right.

public class Foo
{
  public Foo()
  {
    Foo foo = null; // this 'foo' instance is gray ("assignment not used")
    try
    {
      foo = new Foo()
      // ...
    }
    finally
    {
      if (foo != null)
        foo.release();
    }

  }

  public void release(){}
}

Answer 1

Groovy (and Java) variables are always initialized to null: Java Language Specification: Initial Values of Variables.

Edit: The above doesn't apply to local variables. In Java they always have to be assigned explicitly. I can't find any reference to this in the groovy spec. However, examining some local variable declarations with the groovyConsole AST browser confirms that groovy implicitly assigns null to local variables.