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There are a lot of coal deposits left. A lot of them are near the surface, some exposed by mines. The downside is that they are far from current civilization since the closer ones have been mined.

Wood was important in the US for industrialization. Unlike Europe, the US had lots of forests. Those might be enough for start.

Also, we know how to make electricity from solar, wind, and hydro. They need electricity and good design so may not work in beginning but for later stages.



Russia has essentially an inexhaustible supply of trees in the taiga if people were determined enough. The scope of the number of trees is absurd, with estimates that 18 percent of the worlds biomass is in the taiga.


Enough to start bit how far would we get?

As a cynical young adult I always giggled at the 'coke express' train cars that flew by on the railroad tracks but nowadays I know what that means what it's used for and how we get it.

I.e. so many of our modern industrial processes still depend on coal, and the alternatives often require huge energy inputs themselves.




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