An oil industry analyst says the Environmental Protection Agency colluded with environmental activists to go after a Texas natural gas firm, and the agency’s inspector general whitewashed the issue in its report.

The EPA’s Office of the Inspector General last month cleared former regional administrator Al Armendariz of wrongdoing in the case involving a 2010 emergency order to natural gas firm Range Resources after it found elevated levels of methane and benzene — a carcinogen — in residential water. The EPA later settled with the company.