<p>The siting of large-scale industrial projects often generates tensions around their public authorisation. Rather than being shaped solely by localised negative externalities, opposition to such projects may reflect broader territorial concerns articulated through institutional arenas. This paper explores how environmental authorisation processes become focal points of political contestation. Focusing on the case of a proposed Portuguese pulp plant in Galicia (NW Spain), the study analyses municipal plenary debates conducted across the region during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and environmental authorisation process. Based on a spatialised discourse analysis, the findings show that opposition does not follow a simple proximity-based logic. Instead, reactive positions emerge from the perception that the environmental assessment lacks a sufficiently broad territorial reading to justify the project’s development. As a result, resistance is channelled through contestation of the EIA’s scope and role within environmental validation. By foregrounding municipal political actors and the procedural dimensions of environmental authorisation, the paper demonstrates how territorial conflict is politically constructed beyond place-bound interpretations of industrial siting.</p>