The story: Unplanned power outages in Tehran have sparked a highly public blame game between Iran’s energy and petroleum ministries—leading both conservative and pro-reform media to call on the Reformist administration to stop evading responsibility. As Iran continues to grapple with an ongoing energy crisis, government justifications have done little to ease frustrations as blackouts roil an economy already under strain.

The outages: Unplanned power outages hit multiple districts in Tehran on Feb. 11, lasting over four hours in some...