Are Energy Companies really on our side?

I'm still trying to figure this one out. My electric bill for March - April was $210.00. I have a big house and we're trying but not quite there on turning things off when we're not using them. During the month of April - May I used my dryer once or twice. I was really diligent about it because I wanted to see what a drop it would make in my electric bill. The time came when my meter was supposed to be read and I checked my on-line statement for a few days, with my excitement almost bursting from my line-dried seams. Then it was there....my bill... $40.00 more than the previous month. WHAT? There was an additional $20.00 in the electric companies portion as well as an additional $20.00 in the supplier portion. When I e-mailed them to see if it was an actual read or if they had any idea of why it was so high they gave me the standard response telling me where I can go to calculate how much energy my appliances take. Ummm - that's where I found out it costs me $2.25 every time I run the dryer. Really makes me wonder if they are really on the side of the environment or just pretending to be so we conserve and their bills don't really decrease much....or go up....