The U.S. Supreme Court took two new cases Monday asking whether a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., is the only proper venue for certain challenges to Environmental Protection Agency decisions, a question of significant consequence for environmental standards and energy companies hoping to wage litigation in friendlier forums.

In both cases, the Biden administration has sought to transfer lawsuits from industry groups and Republican states to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, claiming the federal Clean Air Act makes the court, with its heavy administrative docket, the only proper place to challenge certain EPA actions.