[glhaynes]

Unless the cataclysm was a side effect of the consumption of the easily-accessible fossil fuels. If humanity had to restart its technological progression today with most easily-accessible fossil fuels already used up, it might find it much more difficult to progress past about where we were in the nineteenth century. http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/could-we-reboot-civilisat...

[drzaiusapelord]

Or they'd just move directly to electrics. Some early cars were electric. The range and power wasn't impressive, but it worked. Wind power becomes pretty obvious at that point as well. Tie a fan to a generator, and voila, free-ish energy.

With no oil, people will just deal with the limitations of low wattage electrics until they get better battery and generation tech. Arguably, you could have a 19th century type society with a nuclear reactor; both uranium and graphite can be mined with simple tools.